Bandung's celebrated sites relive history<\/p>\n
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung<\/p>\n
Asian and African leaders may be emulating their 1955
\npredecessors on Sunday morning by convening at the Merdeka
\nBuilding in Bandung, but organizers are sure that the leaky roof
\nthat nearly stopped President Sukarno's speech 50 years ago will
\nnot recur.<\/p>\n
Hours before Sukarno was to present his "Let a New Asia and
\nNew Africa Be Born" speech at 10:20 am on April 18, 1955, panic
\nstruck officials as the roof suddenly began leaking from the rain
\noutside.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, it was nothing that skillful carpentry could not
\nfix, allowing for the likes of Gamal Abdul Nasser and Zhou Enlai
\nto remain dry and hear the speech without distraction.<\/p>\n
The Rp 12 billion (US$1.2 million) face lift to the building
\nrecently forked out by the government will ensure that the same
\nembarrassment will not happen when President Susilo Bambang
\nYudhoyono and some 40 other heads of state stands underneath the
\n400 flourescent lights inside the building on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The 110-year-old building began as a coffee house for Dutch
\nplantation owners and bureaucrats to mingle and play billiards.
\nMuch of what stands today of the 6,500-square meter structure is
\na result of a 1928 renovation of the Concordia Building, as it
\nwas then known. Based on designs by architects Van Gallen and
\nC.P. Wolff Shoemaker, the building was divided into two sections
\n- a main assembly hall and smaller "revelry" area.<\/p>\n
One day before Sukarno's oration in 1955 he changed the
\nConcordia to its current name, which in English means Freedom
\nBuilding.<\/p>\n
In 1980, a new museum wing was added in conjunction with the
\n25th anniversary of the Bandung Conference.<\/p>\n
Another historical landmark of the 1955 meeting that will also
\nbe revisited by the leaders on Sunday is the Savoy Homann Hotel.
\nIt is here where the leaders will begin to gather and retrace the
\n50-year historic walk to Merdeka Building, which is located just
\n50-meters away.<\/p>\n
In 1955 Abdul Nasser, Zhou Enlai, Jawaharlal Nehru, King
\nNorodom Sihanouk and Sukarno were all guests at the hotel.<\/p>\n
The hotel was originally a simple house owned by a Dutch woman
\nnamed Moerder Homann. After several years, Mrs Homann's residence
\nbecame a guest house, which eventually underwent several
\nrenovations into its current art deco style. According to
\nrecords, among the illustrious guests of the hotel, were Charlie
\nChaplin who stayed there in 1927 and 1935.<\/p>\n
If President Susilo needs further inspiration for his speech
\non Sunday he may well find it from Sukarno's ghost in Savoy
\nHomann's "Suite 244" - the room he booked to occupy during his
\nstay in Bandung. The suite was Sukarno's favorite room at the
\nhotel, and though it has since been enlarged, the personal
\ntouches of Indonesia's first president can still be felt.<\/p>\n
For Sunday's lunch in Bandung, the leaders will convene at the
\ngovernor's residence in the Pakuan Building. Built in the 1860s,
\nthe residence was first built for Dutch governors general when
\nthey ruled the archipelago.<\/p>\n
As a formal residence for the highest administrator of the
\nDutch colony, Pakuan has hosted several notable names in the past
\ncentury. They include French Prime Minister Georgeos Clemenceau
\nin 1921, and Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford in 1927. And
\nlegendary guitarist Andreas Segovia once performed at Pakuan.<\/p>\n
During the 1955 conference, many state level meetings were
\nheld here on the sidelines of the conference, among them the
\nsigning of the recognition of Chinese-Indonesian citizenship on
\nApril 22.<\/p>",
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