On 24th to 26th May, I had attended the FES (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation) seminar and the Progressive Alliance Conference held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It was my first time attending the PA conference, and my first trip to Mongolia. I went with my two DAP colleagues, Howard Lee and Syerleeena.
The Progressive Alliance (PA) is a political international of social-democratic and progressive political parties and organisations founded on 22 May 2013 in Leipzig, Germany It was branched out of Socialist International due to various issues related to the direction of the movement.
In the seminar organized by FES and Olof Palme International Center on 24th May, I presented a paper that outlined the development of social democracy in Malaysia.
During the Conference of PA on 24th May, I chaired a panel discussion of political leaders from a few countries, namely Tsogtbaatar Damdin, MP of Mongolian People’s Party, Mr Sadi Ahmed Pire, member of the Politburo of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Iraq, Mr Thorsten Schafer-Gumbel, Vice-Chair of Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Mr Sergei Stanishev, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria and MP of European Parliament.
I was happy to be able to hear the issues faced by different countries in both conferences. It was a great opportunity for me to get to learn more about what’s happening in many parts of the world, and to interact with the political leaders in the social democratic movement.