“There was also a lot of wealth and so you start to see how societies can give so much to some and so little to others, and that, I think, informed my views”, Obama added.
Ex-US President Barack Obama (Photo: IANS)
Ex-US President Barack Obama on Friday addressed young leaders at a plenary session organized by his foundation.
The titled “How the Asia-Pacific Shaped Us” that featured the former President and his half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, who reflected on their childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii.
Obama said, “It gave me a sense of how people can struggle because when I moved to Indonesia in 1967, Indonesia had just gone through political turmoil and the country was still very underdeveloped, there was a lot of poverty”.
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“There was also a lot of wealth and so you start to see how societies can give so much to some and so little to others, and that, I think, informed my views”, Obama added.
The event started on Tuesday, included workshops, leadership development sessions and community service projects which gathered 200 emerging leaders from 33 Asia-Pacific countries.
The former president said that they should “listen as much as they are talking”.
People are more likely to change their minds on divisive issues if they feel they’re being heard, Obama added.
Obama’s visit to Malaysia was preceded by his wife Michelle’s trip to Vietnam, where she visited schools in Long An province on behalf of the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, meeting Vietnamese education programmes dedicated to empowering women.
On November 24, Obama confirmed his visit to Kuala Lumpur and said that he’ll be meeting with 200 of Asia Pacific’s most promising young leaders – including quite a few from Malaysia.
The selected leaders from Malaysia come from various fields – media, social activism, and even aviation and property development – but all have the same drive to create positive social impact.
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