Obama invokes Gandhi, King to inspire youth

US President Barack Obama today invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King to inspire the youth as he asked them to not take things for granted and ask more questions because that is "what drives human progress."
"The power of young people, is asking why. Little kids, they naturally do that, right? When you talk to a four-year- old or a five-year-old, six-year-old, you tell them to do something - 'Why?' 'Why?'," Obama said.
He noted that parents sometimes tell their children not to question them and obey what they are told to do.
"And sometimes, as parents, we try to say, 'because I told you so.'," Obama said in response to a question during his youth town hall at Taylor University in Kuala Lumpur on the last leg of his Asia tour for the APEC Summit.

"And we don't want to talk about it, right? But that impulse to ask why is actually what drives human progress. That's the reason that the steam engine was created," he said.
"That's the reason the Internet was created. That's the reason that Martin Luther King was able to march and change America. That's the reason that Gandhi was able to liberate India - is because they didn't take for granted the way things are, but instead tried to dream about the way things could be," Obama said.

"That's the job of young people. Old people don't do that because they're comfortable or they've become resigned, or they become cynical, or they're just tired, or they're comfortable, and so they don't ask those questions. But young people, you have to ask those questions," he said when asked to differentiate between old and young people.

Many of the audience in the town hall were students from India and China.
Obama said whenever he meet leaders in international forums, he encourages them to move more in the direction of transparency, accountability, to empower people so that they can participate in civil life.
"And I always want to be honest with people whenever I talk to folks, that that doesn't mean that we don't do business with countries sometimes just because we have shared security interests or economic interests," he said.
"I have to meet with President Xi of China, even though I may not agree with the approach of his government towards human rights, because China is such a big country -- and on something like climate change, if we don't cooperate, then we won't solve the problem," Obama said.

"There are occasions everywhere in the world where I will meet, and the United States has a relationship and cooperates with a country, even though their human rights record may not be good. But I want to assure you that in all of those meetings, we always raise these issues. Part of what we're trying to do also is to create international support for these issues," said the US President.