Bandung takes international stage once again

Bandung takes international stage once again

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

BANDUNG (JP): This quiet provincial town 180 kilometers south of Jakarta seems an unlikely place to discuss world affairs. But tomorrow it will host an important meeting with an agenda which includes many of the issues dominating today's international scene.

A three-day Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) will take place in preparation for the 11th NAM Summit in Cartagena, Colombia, next October.

For Indonesia, the conference will be the last high level meeting of the group the country will host before handing over the NAM chairmanship to Colombia.

Not only is it an opportunity for Indonesia to showcase itself as it plays host to ministers and senior officials from 95 countries and international organizations, but it is also a chance to remind everyone that Bandung was the site of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference which stimulated the formation of NAM.

For NAM itself, the meeting is a chance to promote the organization as an influential player at a time when so many crucial issues are set to be determined.

A most important event this year is the United Nations' 50th birthday.

Since the celebrations begin before the NAM summit, this meeting in Bandung is the only real opportunity for the movement to reach a united stance and make a real impact on the important discussions marking the UN's jubilee.

Such a valuable opportunity has not gone unnoticed.

Originally, only a press communique was to be released at the end of the ministerial meeting in Bandung. However, at NAM's coordinating meeting in New York recently, it was decided that the status of their statement should be upgraded to a communique.

"So this is even more substantive," said NAM's chief executive assistant, Nana Sutresna, underlining the potential impact of the communique.

Officials at the foreign ministry in Jakarta said the first draft of the communique had been given out this week.

Two topics will directly focus on the UN: first, there will be an attempt to agree upon a NAM declaration on the UN's first 50 years.

Second, the meeting will discuss the restructuring of the UN. Specifically, the question of permanent and non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council will be considered.

NAM has long called for a restructuring of the Security Council. Two months ago NAM issued a statement calling for an enlargement of the Council from its current membership of 15 to 26, but fell short of making proposals on the question of permanent seats.

The most tricky issue will be defining the categories or countries to be nominated as a new permanent members.

"At this stage it is probably too difficult to come to a common position on the criteria for enlarging the permanent membership," Nana said.

Separately, NAM members India, Nigeria and Egypt have indicated their respective desires for the coveted position.

Indonesia has yet to formally announce its candidacy but has stated that it should be considered as a potential candidate. Indonesia recently claimed that it had gained backing from some "quite important" countries in relation to a permanent seat.

Given these complexities and the fact that NAM members would be competing against each other, it is hard to imagine that they will reach any sort of breakthrough in Bandung. The most likely outcome is a reassertion of the need of UN restructuring.

Another contentious issue which will gain much attention at the meeting is that of nuclear non-proliferation.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is currently undergoing review at a conference in New York. The issue at hand is whether to extend the NPT indefinitely or not.

Indonesia has raised strong objections to an indefinite extension, saying that nuclear disarmament of the nuclear weapon- owning countries is an outstanding prerequisite.

However, in this case Indonesia's objections cannot represent those of the NAM since a number of the members already support an indefinite extension.

The probability that this topic will receive serious discussion could also be questioned on the basis that two central members of NAM -- India and Pakistan -- are not party to the NPT.

As NAM represents much of the developing world, the Bandung talks will also cover issues of economic development.

As a visiting senior professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India said during a recent trip here, NAM has to decide where to go in terms of making the world a better place for Third World countries.

"How do you get better economic terms in dealing with the G-7 countries? That will be one important issue," said Baladas Ghoshal, the chairman of the university's Centre for South, Central, Southeast Asian and Southwest Pacific Studies.

The meeting should cover two main points: UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's Agenda for Development and the continuation of the North-South dialog/cooperation.

The Agenda for Development provides an outline of how the world could alleviate the miseries of developing nations.

The North-South dialog will further address the problems of underdevelopment created by an unjust world economic system and how these problems can be resolved by the participation of the developed countries.

The approach taken in the North-South cooperation includes such programs as third party financing, whereby a developed country would help fund South-South development projects.

Although Nana has identified the above issues as the topics which will gain special attention at the meeting, officials say that several other political issues are also on the agenda.

These include the plight of Somalia, Burundi and the developments in the Middle East.

The civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina is also contained in the agenda and it is likely that Indonesia will try to increase its momentum by seeking NAM's support for President Soeharto's recent initiative of what he calls a "comprehensive settlement."

Considering the complexities of the topics to be discussed, the meeting will have an arduous time drawing-up a weighty resolution on all the issues to be covered during the scheduled 18.5 hours of discussions.

However, the very point of having the meeting in Bandung may be to try to rekindle the "Bandung Spirit", to guide the delegates in their search for justice for the developing nations.