Bangkok, Thailand—Twenty-one guests, including several parliamentarians and presidential assistants, from four nations attended the most recent Asian Leadership Conference (ALC) held in Bangkok, Thailand from November 3 to 6, 2017. Ten came from Cambodia, eight from the Philippines, two from Myanmar and one from Malaysia. The theme of the conference was “Providing Vision and Leadership for Nation-Building and Peace.”
Among the guests were two current members of parliament, three presidential assistants, one deputy governor, one chief district officer, five government department directors (representing Women’s Affairs, Economic and Financial, Education and Sports, Social Welfare, and the Department of Mines), two filmmakers, a police officer and a retired army general.
The three days focused on “take homes.” This means the delegates were there to learn so that they could “take home” the presentations, the concepts and principles that were presented, and share them with others. As is always done for every ALC, photos of the conference and the PowerPoint presentations were posted online, and a link with a QR code was given to all participants so they can access this material later.
All the delegates attended every session, and many expressed that they want to use UPF’s Principles of Peace to make their societies and nations better.
For example, the retired army general said, “I came to attend this conference thinking: I will come to Bangkok and just show up, but I don’t think I’ll learn anything new.” After the first day he was overwhelmed and acknowledged “I have a lot of work to do when I go back home. I want to organize a conference for all the retired army officers.” The two filmmakers, a mother and son team, said they want to produce a series of short films about the importance of marriage and family using the educational material that was presented. They said the mass media should be utilized to educate people about these universal principles.
The conference concluded with an Interfaith Peace Blessing ceremony, which was attended by two couples: one was a Buddhist couple from Cambodia and the other a Muslim couple from the Philippines.
The next ALC is scheduled to take place from November 24 to 27.