We asked Political Management Training Batch 2016 (Stand by Oh)* Nalina Nair about her experience in the program which prepares young progressive leaders from the region for greater responsibilities and how it influences her own political work and social activism.


Nalina Nair
Currently State Secretary for Democratic Action Party Women’s Wing Selangor and Organising Committee Member of Demi Malaysia
Batch President, PMT Batch 2016 (Stand by Oh)
 

What has happened since your graduation from the program more than five months ago?

Upon arriving back in Malaysia after graduating from the PMT in Cebu, I joined my comrades in organizing the Bersih 5 rally, as I was part of the program team. The rally was held just 2 weeks after the PMT graduation.

Immediately after the rally, we went on to work on the release of election watchdog Bersih 2.0’s chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah. There was no time to waste, as she was being detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act on the eve of the Bersih 5 rally. After being held for 11 days, she was released due to the overwhelming pressure from Malaysians and various foreign NGOs.

Since the inception of the Political Management Training in 2011, the curriculum has been constantly improved and fine-tuned to fit the needs of young progressives in the region.   As the last activity of Socdem Asia for 2016, a working group has been convened once again to dissect the training program.  The module development team is composed of alumni, faculty members, the SocDem  Asia Secretariat and partners, and representatives from Socdem  Asia member parties.

The workshop included thematic working groups that worked on the three clusters of the training:  Ideology, Skills and Themes.  Taking into account the training needs assessment from network member parties, each team went in-depth to examine objectives, core messages, and proposed methods or exercises for each topic.  Various pre- and post- training tools were also devised by this team to further improve the learning dividend of the delegates.  As a contribution to young progressives leadership building in the region, the workshop also aimed at developing a curriculum that allows for national organizations to echo the content and enables them to attune it to local realities.

The training guide will be handy for trainers and mentors of the PMT courses and those youth organizations echoing the training to their members. The third batch of PMT delegates will be travelling to Manila on May 2017.