Reasey Seng

Reasey Seng is the Executive Director of SILAKA, an organisation that aims to enhance women’s empowerment and promote good governance and gender justice. Since 2012, Reasey has been a leading advocate for women’s rights, facilitating and strengthening the knowledge of local people to ensure transparent, accountable, and meaningful citizen participation. Reasey frequently gives plenary talks and presentations, guest appearances on radio talk shows, and interviews about women’s rights issues throughout the world at national, regional, and international levels. She is also the chair of the Steering Committee of the ASEAN Citizens Forum and was a member of the Regional Council (ReC) and Programme and Management (P&M) of APWLD.

APWLD interviewed Reasey in February 2021 and below is her story.

Growing together with APWLD

When I joined the Cambodian women’s movement, I realised that things were not as I had imagined. I had thought that when women are well educated, they wouldn’t be harassed and raped, but the facts showed how this system oppresses women.

I joined SILAKA in November 2012 as the assistant to the Executive Director, who engaged me in different platforms and meetings and kept checking up on how I thought or how I would perform a workshop. 

When APWLD coordinated a network called Southeast Asian Women’s Caucus, I looped into this network as the representative of SILAKA and then became involved with APWLD.

My engagement with the Grounding the Global (GG) Programme as an Organising Committee (OC) member started in 2013, having only joined the civil society for a year. I love how APWLD designed the programme and supported OC members. My understanding grew, my analyses improved, and my lapses were recognised quickly, not just because of the requirements of being an OC member but also because of the sharing between OC members and learning from other participants involved in the programme. 

What inspires me the most is the APWLD Theory of Change and how it tries to bring the voices from the ground through programmes such as Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) and Womanifesto. When other people talk about research, they only think about academic researchers and professional researchers. But people from the community can be experts too, the key being ownership and responsibility. FPAR and Womanifesto showed me that stories and experiences from the ground are powerful, giving me the energy to respond to assumptions that communities are unequipped. Getting ideas from FPAR, SILAKA launched our own research programme and organised it well.  

I joined the Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF) in 2014 and found it to be very energetic, creative, and inspiring. I brought the concept to Cambodia, and we conducted it last year on International Women’s Day. 

In the company of APWLD, I am steadily raising my capacity and knowledge. I cannot say enough about how much APWLD contributed to the path that led me to where I am today. In 2015, I became the programme coordinator and the general secretary of a network called Committee to Promote Women in Politics. Having been selected for the position in 2018, I am now the Executive Director of SILAKA.

Cambodia is a conservative and patriarchal society. It is not easy for a woman to speak out about issues and challenge social norms. Even in civil society, there is another level of discrimination against women, especially young women.  

It was very challenging for me to be a 30-year-old executive director. Imagine being young and the only woman in the room. With everybody else, mostly senior men, trying to dominate conversations, I needed a lot of courage and energy, which I get from the stories of women, girls, and sisters from the region. Silence will not solve any problems and will only diminish the spaces women have to speak out. So, I always keep asking myself: if I do not speak out, what does that do for the other women who don’t have the chance to be here, who don’t have the opportunity to be on this platform, who don’t have the opportunity to fight for themselves? 

It is tiring and stressful, but seeing the youth group, seeing the women standing up and fighting for their own justice, I can say that I’m on the right track, and my heart smiles. With strong beliefs, principles, and core values, I always have the energy to move forward. 

Learning from FDJ and Women in Power programmes

I learned a lot about advocacy from the Feminist Development Justice (FDJ) programme. The Development Justice Framework helps to sharpen our analyses. Words related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are very technical, but through this program, I learned to transform jargon into simple words that our community members can relate to. The SDGs are the dream of world leaders, but the question is, are they the dream of the people? This is the consciousness I developed from FDJ. 

I was able to participate in the New York SDG review in 2017, where we were connecting the regional and global building an alliance that opened my eyes. It was great advocacy. APWLD does advocacy at the regional and international levels, and the FDJ programme could consider sharing information on how the policymakers should act in each country, which will be valuable. 

It is very challenging to reflect on the Women in Power programme, because unlike those in Burma/Myanmar, Malaysia or other countries, the women’s parliament in Cambodia is limited in exercising their power and role. 

From processes and regional training, I learned a lot with other OC members about how to understand what is happening in Burma/Myanmar, check up on those events, re-adjust our strategies, push on for gender politics training, and, how we can be moving forward virtually in the pandemic.

Engagement with ReC and P&M

With APWLD, no matter what role I play, it is all about learning and capacity building for me. My engagement with Programme and Management (P&M) makes me reflect on my leadership and analysis. I love how APWLD is driven by membership. Being a part of P&M and Regional Council (ReC) helped me sharpen my analysis for SILAKA. As I learn from APWLD, I am taking steps to maximise SILAKA’s efficiency.  

APWLD’s success is a result of its powerful teamwork and members’ network. We are building a solid system that can support each other and an environment which nurtures each other. Internally, APWLD is confident in the way it mobilises all its staff, with teamwork being essential no matter how good one is. They share similar beliefs and analyses on how the system functions and have strong support from OC members and other experienced persons.

I learned from APWLD’s internal reflection that as a feminist organisation, we assume that we do not need to talk about sexual harassment, or whether there is bullying or a hostile environment. These are toxic assumptions because we are challenging prevalent patriarchy—a male-centred and male-dominant powerful system. APWLD is creating a nurturing environment for the staff, which is a critical factor in making the feminist organisation sustainable. 

Why do people want to be a member of APWLD? It is not about financial support but about getting informed about movement building or advocacy. I asked myself why I joined APWLD, and the simple answer is: it benefits me. To strengthen the membership of APWLD, we need to constantly address, in our messages and actions, the members’ needs and make sure we contribute to the benefit of the world, the movement, and our members.