“Asian Liberal Parties in Power: Getting There, Remaining There”: June 28-30, 2010, Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City, Manila.

On June 28-29, 2010 the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) held a conference “Asian Liberal Parties in Power: Getting There, Remaining There” in conjunction with the 90^th birthday anniversary of Senator Jovito R. Salonga, the Pillar of Philippine Liberalism, and the inauguration of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III in Manila.

When students are faced with the question: why don’t they like their Civic Education class? Their answers would be unanimous: it’s boring! One student said that, “It’s the time of the day when we can ‘rest and relax’ for a while.” Another admits that “The teacher is often absent, so we have a free period. We use it to chat with friends.” These are a few of the many staggering responses that were revealed in our survey with Budi Luhur University a month ago.

Out of 200 students in the survey, 1/3 of them are frustrated on the fact that the materials in the textbooks are no longer relevant with the condition in reality. Why is it that Members of Parliament are not performing its role accordingly? Teachers should be able to raise a discussion on this and link theory to reality. That is why almost half of the students feel that teachers need to be more creative and to think out of the box in order to have an active and interesting discussion in class.

“Malin Kundang was cursed and nobody tried to understand him. His boat capsized by the beach and legend has it that the rebellious young man turned into a stone. His mother had cursed him. That old and poor woman was disappointed and heartbroken: for her only child did not want to know her anymore, when he passed by her village as a rich man after years of travel. And this story that has been told from one generation to another says, the gods were on his mother's side.  Which meant it all worked out in the end : someone paid  the price for this rebellion. No one should forgive Malin Kundang. For we never find the need to understand his feelings”. Goenawan Mohamad “Potret Penyair Muda sebagai si Malin Kundang” (The Portrait of A Young Poet as Malin Kundang,  Pustaka Jaya 1972)