| Izah Azahari |
THE Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) is a programme that facilitates an exchange of fellows between Asean member countries and the United States where the fellows will be exposed to both the professional and cultural aspects of their host countries, with Brunei also taking part as a host country.
The Bulletin yesterday had the chance to interview a YSEALI Professional Fellow from the United States – Patrick O Hare, a City Administrator from Oregon whose professional interests focus on building necessary water and wastewater infrastructure for his community to grow, while ensuring the protection of the environment together with Jeffery Ang Meng Ann, a Brunei representative who has gone to the US under the YSEALI Professional Fellow Initiative.
During the interview, Patrick explained that the programme is something that he had grown up into, with his father previously hosting different fellows from other countries when he was younger, so it was natural to him to agree when he was offered to host YSEALI fellows in his hometown.
Patrick hosted Jeffery from Brunei and another fellow from Indonesia for one month, who also spent the exchange programme in Albany and Washington, they were given different experiences and days where they were able to go and meet with people about environmental sustainability on how to manage forests, natural resources, roads and the like.
“In that programme, there’s opportunity for me to apply to come back to the country of one of the fellows I hosted, and so I wanted to come to Brunei,” said Patrick.
The interview also saw Jeffery explain that YSEALI, being a President Obama signature programme launched in 2013, is a professional development exchange programme for the best and brightest community leaders from Asean, working in the fields of civic engagement, NGO management, economic empowerment, governance, legislative process, environmental and natural resources management, which provides participants with a month-long fellowship at US-based non-profit or other organisations, government offices or legislative bodies, working with community leaders to en-hance their practical expertise, leadership skills and professional contacts to address issues in their home communities.
Patrick O Hare (L) and Jeffery Ang Meng Ann during an interview with the Bulletin. – BAHYIAH BAKIR
A number of fellows from Brunei have also gone to the US for the exchange programme, which is also funded by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), where Jeffery is one of the recent fellows to participate in the programme in April.
“It’s a very learned and enriching experience for me and it has helped me to network with fellows my age all over Southeast Asia, so I got to know more people and make good connections,” added Jeffery.
Patrick also stated that the Professional Knowledge Exchange is something that he hopes he can help give back through education, even though Brunei is very UK-based, he believed that there are a lot of opportunities that are untapped in the US.
“For instance, the University of Oregon where I got my Masters, there’s probably full scholarships for people from Brunei so I’d really like to talk and be an advocate for that. As well as just for resource, to bounce ideas like Jeffrey said the point of the programme was for them to come and take back what they learnt here and it’s the same for me,” added Patrick.
The US Fellow, also added that he can’t wait to get back and talk about the things he could take back from Brunei, as even though Brunei is still a developing country there are still several things that he looks to Brunei as being a leader, even more than where he’s from.
“Like I said, you have a unique culture with a very close community where your Sultan has impressed me as I read the paper every single day,” added Patrick.
“It’s a perception that is worldwide right now, but there are people that I know that were uninformed and were worried about me coming here as it is a Muslim nation, but with the people I have interacted with here, that’s probably more important in what I will be taking home which is the commonality that we share,” said Patrick.
He added that we are all dealing with the same issues and doing the same things, which makes everyone similar to each other and that’s a message he’d really like to take back his country.
YSEALI also aims to strengthen leadership development and networking in Asean, deepen engagement with young leaders on key regional and global challenges, and strengthen people-to-people ties between the United States and young Southeast Asian leaders.
The YSEALI Professional Fellows Programme is part of the broader Professional Fellows exchange consists of bright young leaders aged 18 to 35 years from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The young leaders have innovative ideas for tackling what they have identified as their generation’s greatest challenges in the Asean region.
One of the funding bodies of the YSEALI programme – ICMA, advances professional local government worldwide with a mission that is to create excellence in local governance by developing and fostering professional management to build better communities, while identifying leading practices to address the needs of local governments and professionals serving communities globally.
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