What three Asian societies taught me about youth leadership

I never intended to study Asia by moving between different societies. I was simply pursuing an education and trying to build a future. Yet, looking back, the journey from Bangladesh to Malaysia, then to Indonesia and eventually back to Malaysia became an education in itself. The degrees and academic qualifications were important, but the deeper lessons came from living among people with different histories, cultures, languages, religious traditions and understandings of society.

I was born and raised in Bangladesh. In 2013, Malaysia became an important part of my educational journey, where I completed my bachelor’s degree and later continued my academic studies. In 2019, I moved to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to pursue my master’s degree. In 2022, I returned to Malaysia to pursue my PhD, and I have remained based here since then, where I now work as a full-time lecturer at Universiti Malaya.

These movements across borders gradually changed the way I understood young people, education and leadership. They also made me more aware that there is no single Asian experience of youth and no universal Asian model of leadership. Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia have their own histories, institutions and social realities, and my personal experience cannot represent the complexity of any of them. But living and studying in these three societies allowed me to observe certain values that have stayed with me: the resilience I first encountered in Bangladesh, the lessons in coexistence I experienced in Malaysia, and the connection between education and community that became clearer to me in Indonesia.

Bangladesh: Where Resilience Begins

My earliest understanding of ambition came from Bangladesh. Growing up there, I saw how deeply education is connected to hope. For many families, education is not simply a means of obtaining a qualification. It represents the possibility of a better future, greater dignity and wider opportunities for the next generation. Parents make significant sacrifices because they believe that education can open doors that might otherwise remain closed.

At the same time, young people often have to pursue those ambitions while facing economic pressures, intense competition, family expectations and uncertainty about what comes after graduation. Yet what has remained particularly memorable to me is the determination with which many young people continue to pursue their aspirations despite these difficulties.

This shaped my understanding of resilience. I came to see resilience not merely as the ability to endure hardship, but as the capacity to continue imagining a future when the present does not provide many guarantees. For young people, that ability can be an important form of leadership. Leadership does not necessarily begin when someone receives a title or occupies a formal position. It can begin much earlier, through the willingness to take responsibility for one’s education, choices and direction.

At the same time, I have become cautious about celebrating resilience without asking why so many young people are required to be resilient in the first place. It is easy for institutions and societies to tell young people to work harder, adapt and persevere. It is more difficult to ask whether those same institutions are providing sufficient opportunities for young people to participate meaningfully and shape the circumstances in which they live.

Young people should certainly be encouraged to persevere, but resilience should not become a substitute for opportunity. A society should not merely prepare its younger generation to overcome obstacles; it should also create conditions in which their abilities can be transformed into meaningful contributions.

Malaysia: Learning to Live with Difference

When I came to Kuala Lumpur in 2013, I entered a social environment very different from the one in which I had grown up. Malaysia introduced me to the everyday experience of living and studying within a multicultural society. At university, I encountered people from different ethnic, linguistic, religious and national backgrounds, while my experience as an international student also brought me into contact with people from many parts of Asia and beyond.

Some of the most valuable lessons were not found in formal lectures. They emerged through ordinary interactions and conversations. I learned that people can share the same classroom while carrying very different histories and assumptions. I learned that disagreement does not necessarily have to lead to hostility and that identity is often more complex than the categories used to describe it. Above all, I learned that listening is an essential part of understanding.

That experience has become increasingly important to me when thinking about youth leadership. Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most diverse regions, and young people are growing up in societies where different ethnicities, languages, religions and political perspectives meet every day. Their ability to live and work with people who are different from themselves will increasingly determine not only their individual success but also the quality of the societies they help shape.

Malaysia taught me that coexistence requires more than simply tolerating difference. It requires patience, communication and a willingness to understand another person’s experience without immediately treating it as a threat to one’s own identity. These qualities are sometimes overlooked when leadership is discussed. We tend to celebrate confidence, ambition and public speaking, but diverse societies also need leaders who can listen, negotiate disagreement and build trust.

This is particularly relevant in an age when young people encounter one another through social media as much as through physical communities. Digital connectivity has made communication easier, but it has not necessarily made understanding easier. A person can now encounter thousands of opinions without having a meaningful conversation with anyone who holds a different view. For that reason, the ability to listen across differences is not simply a social courtesy. It is an important civic and leadership skill.

Yogyakarta: Understanding the Social Purpose of Education

In 2019, I moved to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to pursue my master’s degree. My experience there added another dimension to my understanding of education and leadership. Yogyakarta has a distinctive intellectual and cultural environment shaped by its universities, religious traditions, artistic life and wider communities. During my time there, I began to think more seriously about a question that can easily be overlooked when one is focused on academic achievement: what is education ultimately for?

A university degree can provide professional opportunities, and research can expand the boundaries of knowledge. These purposes are important, but education also changes a person’s relationship with society. The more I reflected on my own journey, the more I came to believe that education should not distance people from their communities. Ideally, it should deepen their awareness of those communities and of the responsibilities that accompany knowledge.

We often ask young people what they want to become. It is a natural question, particularly in societies where education is closely connected to employment and social mobility. But there is another question that deserves equal attention: what do you want to contribute?

The difference between these questions is significant. The first places the individual at the centre of the story, while the second asks the individual to consider his or her relationship with the wider community. A society certainly needs graduates who are professionally capable, economically productive and intellectually skilled. But it also needs citizens who understand that their education gives them responsibilities as well as opportunities.

My years in Yogyakarta encouraged me to think of leadership in this broader sense. It does not necessarily begin with institutional authority. It can begin with the willingness to use one’s knowledge, skills and opportunities for purposes that extend beyond personal advancement. Education becomes more meaningful when it creates people who are not only capable of earning a living but also willing to engage responsibly with the society around them.

A Generation Facing a Rapidly Changing Asia

Since returning to Malaysia in 2022 to pursue my PhD, I have continued to observe these questions from another perspective. I am now not only someone who once travelled across different educational environments but also someone who teaches young people. This has made me more conscious of the opportunities and pressures facing the generation now entering adulthood.

Their world is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence is transforming how knowledge is produced and how many forms of work are organised. Digital platforms have changed the way young people communicate and participate in public discussion. At the same time, social media can create new forms of polarisation, misinformation and misunderstanding. Young people are therefore being asked to navigate a world in which access to information has expanded enormously, while the ability to distinguish reliable knowledge from misleading information has become increasingly important.

Economic opportunity remains another major concern. The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) continues to publish youth unemployment as a distinct labour-market indicator, reflecting the particular challenges faced by younger people entering employment. The latest available monthly data include unemployment figures for those aged 15 to 30.

Behind such statistics are individual lives and aspirations. There are graduates wondering whether their qualifications will lead to meaningful employment, young people considering opportunities beyond their home countries, and students preparing for a labour market that may look considerably different by the time they complete their education.

This is why discussions about youth leadership cannot be separated from discussions about youth opportunity. It is difficult to ask young people to take responsibility for the future if they have few meaningful opportunities to participate in the present. They need education, but education must be connected to opportunity. They need technological competence, but also the judgement to use technology responsibly. They need the freedom to express their views, but also the ability to disagree without turning disagreement into hostility.

Most importantly, they need opportunities to exercise responsibility before they occupy the formal positions traditionally associated with leadership.

Looking Beyond National Borders

Living in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia also changed my understanding of the relationship between national identity and regional belonging. These countries are distinct societies with their own histories and political experiences, and those differences should not be ignored. Yet many of the challenges facing young people today increasingly extend beyond national borders.

Technology does not stop at borders. Neither do climate concerns, economic uncertainty, misinformation, migration or the movement of ideas and knowledge. Young people therefore need opportunities to understand one another across the region, not simply through textbooks or official narratives but through direct encounters and collaboration.

This is particularly important in Southeast Asia. When young people from different countries meet, they often discover that the differences they had imagined are more complicated than expected, while the similarities they had overlooked are often substantial. Such encounters can create something that cannot easily be produced through formal statements: familiarity.

Familiarity can reduce suspicion. Conversation can challenge stereotypes. Shared projects can create trust. For this reason, youth exchange and regional collaboration should not be treated merely as forms of cultural diplomacy. They can also contribute to the development of citizens who are more comfortable with diversity and more capable of engaging constructively with people beyond their immediate communities.

This has significance for democracy as well. Democratic societies require citizens who can live with disagreement without treating every difference as a threat. They need people who can defend their convictions while recognising the dignity of others. They also need citizens who understand that participation is not limited to voting or holding public office, but includes the everyday work of building trust within society.

Rethinking Leadership

My experiences across these three societies have gradually made me question definitions of leadership that place too much emphasis on status and visibility. Political office, institutional authority and professional achievement are important forms of leadership, but they do not exhaust the meaning of the word.

Some of the most consequential leadership takes place without an audience. It can be seen when a student brings people from different backgrounds together rather than reinforcing divisions, when a researcher applies knowledge to a problem affecting society, when a teacher encourages students to think independently, or when an ordinary citizen refuses to allow cultural or religious differences to become a reason for hostility.

These actions may never attract public recognition, but they contribute to the social environment in which other people live. For that reason, I believe youth leadership should be understood less as a competition for positions and more as the development of responsible citizenship. Young people should certainly be ambitious. Asia needs their creativity, energy and willingness to challenge established assumptions. But ambition needs direction. Success should not be defined entirely by income, status or individual advancement.

A healthy society needs young people who can pursue their goals without believing that another person’s success diminishes their own; who can speak confidently without assuming that they are always right; and who can disagree with others without denying their dignity. These qualities are not merely desirable personal characteristics. They are part of the social foundations upon which plural and democratic societies depend.

What I Have Carried Across Borders

When I look back at my journey, I no longer see Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia simply as stages in an academic career. Each society has contributed something to the way I understand education, people and leadership.

Bangladesh gave me my earliest understanding of resilience and of the hopes that families place in education. Malaysia taught me through everyday experience that diversity requires more than passive tolerance; it requires communication, patience and a willingness to listen. Yogyakarta encouraged me to think more deeply about the social purpose of education and the responsibility that comes with knowledge.

None of these lessons belongs exclusively to one country. They overlap and reinforce one another. Resilience without opportunity can become exhaustion. Diversity without dialogue can become division. Education without responsibility can become little more than personal advancement. But when these qualities come together, education can produce something more valuable than individual success. It can help cultivate citizens who are capable of contributing to communities that are themselves diverse, changing and interconnected. That, to me, is where youth leadership should begin.

An Unfinished Journey

My journey has taken me from Bangladesh to Malaysia, from Malaysia to Indonesia, and back to Malaysia in 2022, where I have remained based while pursuing my PhD and working at Universiti Malaya. I could describe this simply as an academic journey, but I now see it as something broader.

Each place changed how I understood the others. Bangladesh became more meaningful to me after I experienced Malaysia. Malaysia became more understandable after I had lived in Indonesia. Indonesia became part of a wider regional picture after I returned to Malaysia.

Perhaps this is one of the most valuable things that crossing borders can teach us. It does not require us to abandon where we come from. Instead, it gives us an opportunity to see our own society with wider eyes.

This may be particularly important for Asia’s younger generation. Young people today have opportunities for communication, travel, education and collaboration that previous generations could scarcely have imagined. The challenge is to turn that connectivity into genuine understanding rather than simply more communication.

Southeast Asia’s future will not be determined only by economic growth, technological development or the decisions of governments. It will also depend on the quality of relationships among its people and on the ability of younger generations to live with difference without allowing difference to become division.

My own journey has convinced me that leadership begins there. It begins with responsibility, with the willingness to listen, and with the recognition that our future is never entirely an individual possession.

From Chittagong to Kuala Lumpur, from Yogyakarta back to Kuala Lumpur, I have learned that education can take us across borders, but its deeper purpose is to help us understand the people we meet on the other side. Perhaps the real challenge for my generation is therefore not simply to succeed in the Asia we inherit, but to build the relationships, institutions and communities that will allow the next generation to inherit a better one.

Mohammad Eisa Ruhullah, PhD
Academy of Islamic Studies
Universiti Malaya
Email:

Sources

Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). Monthly Youth Unemployment / Labour Force Statistics. OpenDOSM, Government of Malaysia.
FORSEA. FORSEA: Southeast Asian democrats and rights campaigners for fairness and democracy. FORSEA.
Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS), Malaysia. Youth Development and Participation Initiatives. Government of Malaysia.