A tribute to Sukarno from the people of Algeria

A tribute to Sukarno from the people of Algeria

By Abdelaziz Bouteflika

ALGIERS (JP): There are men who, due to their unique
qualities, flawless commitment and a rarely denied prospective
vision, emerge from the community to mark their era and their
contemporaries' wits.

Therefore, their destiny transcends their own selves and
embraces that of the people from whom they originated, to become
their spokesmen, their course having acquired the value of an
example. The man whose centennial birthday we are commemorating,
former president Sukarno, is no doubt of this scope.

On this occasion, my first duty, which is also the most
pleasant one, is to echo the respectful tribute that the Algerian
people wish to pay to this great man in recognition of his
continued support of the struggle for liberation of the Algerian
people and of other oppressed people, but also enamored of
justice and freedom.

As an ardent upholder of just causes, president Sukarno
dedicated his life to the service of his country, Indonesia, and
also to the defense of all Third World countries, which
unanimously paid tribute to his great qualities that had inspired
and guided most of them in their struggle for freedom.

These values have been underlined in his still famous speech,
delivered at the opening of Asia-Africa Conference held on April
16, 1955, in Bandung, of which he was the principal initiator and
that many regarded as "the first speech of colored people from
Asia and Africa".

It's so natural that I recall this sentence extracted from his
inaugural speech revealing perfectly the genius qualities of
president Sukarno: "For many generations, our people have been
voiceless. We, Asian and African people, totaling one billion and
400 million, which is much more than a half of the world's
population, can mobilize in favor of peace against what I call
the moral violence of the nations".

Through the Conference in Bandung, president Sukarno offered
to the fighting Algeria an unexpected tribune to make its voice
heard, barely a few months after the triggering on Nov. 1, 1954,
of its struggle for national liberation.

This historic conference of which he was the initiator,
significantly marked the entering, with particular flare, of
young Asian-African nations onto the international scene. This
conference gave birth to the formation of the Non-Aligned
Movement and made Sukarno a "cantor of anti-colonialism".

In a world which is today completely disrupted and where human
values are increasingly overshadowed, the ideal defended by
president Sukarno takes more depth and confirms, if needed, the
pertinence and validity of the precious principles he so deeply
cherished and from which the Non-Aligned Movement originated.

A charismatic leader, a revolutionary man, a liberator
striving for Indonesia's unity, president Sukarno worked
untiringly throughout his life for his ideals of justice and
peace, as well as for the promotion of the universal values to
which he was fundamentally attached. Indonesia can be proud of
counting among its sons, a man with the scope of president
Sukarno who has been for our generation a model and an example to
follow.

I keep the most admiring souvenir from this great militant who
engaged early in the struggle for the liberation of Third World
countries. I am, until now, still impressed by the openness of
his mind, his sense of humor and his broad knowledge of foreign
languages leading him to be an outstanding man of communication.
He, therefore, enjoyed a rare charisma, enhanced by an elegance
of behavior and conduct envied by many of his contemporaries.

To the statesman, to the founder and supreme chief of the
Nationalist Movement, to the first president of the Republic of
Indonesia, to the man of action and conviction, I would like to
pay a sincere and deserved tribute and associate myself from the
bottom of my heart to this commemoration in which the Algerian
people would like to join as brothers with the Indonesian people.

The writer is President of the Democratic People's Republic of
Algeria.