2010-09-07
DPP holds 2010 youth campaign camp
The DPP organized a youth summer camp for university students across the country to encourage young students to participate in public affairs and learn more about the modern election campaign. The camp was organized by the DPP’s Youth Department in Tainan County’s Tree Valley Park from Aug. 19 to 21.
To promote the summer camp, the DPP took the campaign online and invited participation through online registration at the DPP’s youth blog. The title given to the camp was the 2010 Democratic Generation Campaign Camp to highlight the DPP’s emphasis on democracy. The DPP also promoted the camp with slogans such as “I Act, So I Am”, a theme that will be used to encourage youth participation throughout the 2010 campaign.
Alex Huang, director of the DPP’s Dept. of Youth Affairs, said the purpose of this event was to give youth in Taiwan an opportunity to meet and discuss with those involved in developing campaign tactics for the DPP in winning elections.
For these topics, the heads of the DPP’s media, youth and survey departments spoke to young participants about the roles each department plays in a political campaign.
Participants also had a chance to have a sit-down session with youth activists from other countries who are involved in campaigning in their home countries. The international youth activists were visiting Taiwan as part a youth workshop organized by the DPP in collaboration with the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (see related story).
As invited main speaker, Kao Chien-chi, former legislator and current DPP Deputy Secretary-General told about his experience as legislator, starting from his grassroots campaigning to representing the public’s voice in government and his involvement in writing legislation.
Another main speaker was Lu Wei-ying, director of youth affairs for the campaign headquarters of the DPP’s 2010 Greater Tainan candidate Lai Ching-teh. Lu spoke of the central themes for youth in Lai Ching-teh’s campaign, citing Lai’s slogan of “where there is happiness, where there is future, the political work must continue”. He also said that history proves that only through faith and belief can there be extraordinary creativity and emotion coming from youth.
