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FOREWORD

How does one capture and reproduce the total spectrum of interactions that occurred in a span of ten days among more than four scores of people with varying degrees and shades of socio-economic-politico-religious backgrounds and persuasions and, in some cases, motivations?

How does one wade through a pile of words — printed and taped — in order to come up not only with what is editorially succinct but with what is faithful to that which really transpired?

For what happened during the ten-day PAN ASIAN ASSEMBLY of the WORLD STUDENT CHRISTIAN FEDERATION and the INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT OF CATHOLIC STUDENTS in Asia held in Hong Kong from 13-22 May this year was anything but neat or cut and dry.

There was harmony but also discord. There was order but also chaos. There was clarity but also confusion. There was camaraderie but also suspicion. There was unity but also dissension. BUT THERE WAS ALWAYS HOPE! In short, there, even there, was STRUGGLE: struggle among and between the participants; struggle with the contradictions inherent or attendant to the faith they proclaim in relation with the ideological commitment they have made, or in some cases, in the process of making; struggle with the overwhelming problems and issues which beset the majority of the people in Asia and the Pacific sub-region.

The Editorial Committee and the Executive Editor are not quite sure if what is inside this pamphlet approximates their objective of rendering a report that would be faithful to the event that was PAN ASIAN ASSEMBLY. But we did our best, and in doing so, we had to exercise a lot of our editorial prerogatives! But over and above this immediate objective is our hope that the journal will not only be a record of what already was but a reminder of what is and what is yet to be in the struggle of Asians for self-reliance towards full liberation.

Finally, a word of gratitude to all who make any undertaking such as the PAN ASIAN ASSEMBLY and this journal possible — the thinkers, the workers-thinkers, the funders, even.... the devil's advocates!

naelcortez, maxwajong, supardan,

marshalfernando, michaelaeria

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

ruthocortez

EXECUTIVE EDITOR