AAS far bigger than 1955 Conference

AAS far bigger than 1955 Conference

Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Today is Monday, April 18, 2005. At exactly 9 a.m., 50 years ago,
the leaders from the 29 Asian and African countries gathered in
Bandung to promote goodwill and cooperation among themselves and
promote world peace.

The stories surrounding that first Bandung Conference were
circulated among Asian and African people for decades. Indonesia,
as the host, faced many difficulties in organizing this
historical conference. Yet, the young Republic of Indonesia
proved to the world that it had all the qualities to become a
leader of Third World countries.

In his book The Bandung Connection, Roeslan Abdulgani, the
secretary-general of the organizing committee of the 1955
conference, explained how he and other colleagues cleaned the wet
floor and chairs at the venue by themselves during the lunch
break (1 p.m. to 3 p.m.) after a roof leakage caused by heavy
rain on the first day.

"We closed the doors tightly so no delegates could see us
cleaning up. We managed to clean the mess by drying the chairs
and floor. By 2:45 p.m., it looked clean and dry. We breathed a
big sigh of relief," Roeslan said.

Though the Asia-Africa Conference (AAC) was jointly sponsored
by Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Burma
(now Myanmar), the original idea came from Indonesia at a meeting
of the prime ministers of those five countries in Colombo in
April 1954.

In a later meeting in Bogor in December 1954, the five
countries agreed to invite 25 countries after a
long debate over China's participation in place of Taiwan to the
planned meeting.

Of the 25 original invitees, only the Central African
Federation could not attend.

Though it was called a gathering of Asian and African
countries, only six countries -- Egypt, Ethiopia, Gold Coast (now
Ghana), Liberia, Libya and Sudan -- from the African continent
and 23 Asian countries, including the five sponsors, participated
in Bandung Conference.

South and North Korea, Mongolia and Israel were not invited
though they were independent states. Countries like Sudan and the
Gold Coast were not fully independent but attended the meeting.

Surprisingly, South Africa -- the cosponsor of this week's
Asian-African Summit (AAS) in Jakarta -- was not invited to
Bandung in 1955 because it was still under the rule of the
apartheid regime.

Since the 1955 Bandung Conference, scores of new countries
emerged in both continents. South Vietnam and North Vietnam were
united into one country. Bangladesh later separated from Pakistan
and East Timor which, at the time was a Portuguese colony, is now
an independent country. The Central African Federation split into
Zimbabwe and Zambia.

By any calculation, the AAS is far bigger than the AAC.
A total of 52 countries from Africa and 54 from Asia are going to
take part in the AAS in Jakarta.

What has not changed in 50 years is that the Palestinian
people are still suffering and the majority of the countries'
policies toward Israel and Taiwan remain relatively unchanged.
Interestingly, the Palestinian issue was discussed at the Bandung
Conference and is also on the agenda this time around.

In terms of logistics and media coverage, there is a huge
difference in 2005 compared to 1955.

The Bandung Conference was attended by 1,500 delegates and
covered by around 500 journalists, including 214 foreign
journalists. But there was no television in this part of the
world at that time.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs director of information and
media Lutfi Rauf said more than 1,300 journalists, including 634
foreign journalists, have already registered to cover the AAS.