Respected Dignitaries,
Today we are not where and what we were five years ago. We are miles ahead. Yet we are not what we aimed for. Our local administration system is beginning to stand on its feet. But that is just not enough. It must be able to survive and move ahead. The good news is that with the local governance policy at hand, we have the engine ready. The best news is that with youth’s active participation in this system, we will have the fuel ready. Today we are going to decide how much fuel we need for a sustainable future of local administration system; how participatory and open we want it to be. Today we will decide about the future of this country, the future of all of us, our youth.
You must be feeling heavy shouldered right now; no doubt this is a big decision. But please let me relieve you of that burden. How many of you do not dream of a better future for our children? No one, as expected, cause we all do. But we must remember that better can happen only if we work towards it, if we set a deadline to our dreams and transform them into goals, if we use all available resources. And if we come up with a list of resources, youth are on top of it.
They are not strangers, they are us. The best part is that we have them in great numbers, they make 2/3 our population. We can either let them perish and let our dreams remain dreams forever, or we can use them, and be the agents of transforming this quantity into quality. It is very much in your hands.
Fear of failure and disappointment… trust and confidence…it is a tough fight… but YOU decide the winner. Let us think, what will we lose at maximum by allowing youth to join in greater numbers than today? They are young and they may make mistakes, but then they have you to correct them, to be their light at the end of the tunnel. But if being young doesn’t translate into being wrong, then we have gained a world for today and for tomorrow.
For our local administration system to survive, it must become more open, to its own children, to its own blood. The decision of lowering the age limit from 22 to 19 will serve this purpose. I must add that it does not mean unlimited, unrestrained or uncontrolled openness; it rather is a controlled expansion, where the control is in your hands.
Kofi Annan once said that no nation is a democracy by birth; nations evolve into democracies over centuries. No one is born a responsible citizen; we become one in a process and over a lifetime. It is time for this process to begin for our youth, because they are our lifeline and our ticket to the future.
Thank you.