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.