Bandung's celebrated sites relive history
Bandung's celebrated sites relive history
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
Asian and African leaders may be emulating their 1955
predecessors on Sunday morning by convening at the Merdeka
Building in Bandung, but organizers are sure that the leaky roof
that nearly stopped President Sukarno's speech 50 years ago will
not recur.
Hours before Sukarno was to present his "Let a New Asia and
New Africa Be Born" speech at 10:20 am on April 18, 1955, panic
struck officials as the roof suddenly began leaking from the rain
outside.
Fortunately, it was nothing that skillful carpentry could not
fix, allowing for the likes of Gamal Abdul Nasser and Zhou Enlai
to remain dry and hear the speech without distraction.
The Rp 12 billion (US$1.2 million) face lift to the building
recently forked out by the government will ensure that the same
embarrassment will not happen when President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and some 40 other heads of state stands underneath the
400 flourescent lights inside the building on Sunday.
The 110-year-old building began as a coffee house for Dutch
plantation owners and bureaucrats to mingle and play billiards.
Much of what stands today of the 6,500-square meter structure is
a result of a 1928 renovation of the Concordia Building, as it
was then known. Based on designs by architects Van Gallen and
C.P. Wolff Shoemaker, the building was divided into two sections
- a main assembly hall and smaller "revelry" area.
One day before Sukarno's oration in 1955 he changed the
Concordia to its current name, which in English means Freedom
Building.
In 1980, a new museum wing was added in conjunction with the
25th anniversary of the Bandung Conference.
Another historical landmark of the 1955 meeting that will also
be revisited by the leaders on Sunday is the Savoy Homann Hotel.
It is here where the leaders will begin to gather and retrace the
50-year historic walk to Merdeka Building, which is located just
50-meters away.
In 1955 Abdul Nasser, Zhou Enlai, Jawaharlal Nehru, King
Norodom Sihanouk and Sukarno were all guests at the hotel.
The hotel was originally a simple house owned by a Dutch woman
named Moerder Homann. After several years, Mrs Homann's residence
became a guest house, which eventually underwent several
renovations into its current art deco style. According to
records, among the illustrious guests of the hotel, were Charlie
Chaplin who stayed there in 1927 and 1935.
If President Susilo needs further inspiration for his speech
on Sunday he may well find it from Sukarno's ghost in Savoy
Homann's "Suite 244" - the room he booked to occupy during his
stay in Bandung. The suite was Sukarno's favorite room at the
hotel, and though it has since been enlarged, the personal
touches of Indonesia's first president can still be felt.
For Sunday's lunch in Bandung, the leaders will convene at the
governor's residence in the Pakuan Building. Built in the 1860s,
the residence was first built for Dutch governors general when
they ruled the archipelago.
As a formal residence for the highest administrator of the
Dutch colony, Pakuan has hosted several notable names in the past
century. They include French Prime Minister Georgeos Clemenceau
in 1921, and Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford in 1927. And
legendary guitarist Andreas Segovia once performed at Pakuan.
During the 1955 conference, many state level meetings were
held here on the sidelines of the conference, among them the
signing of the recognition of Chinese-Indonesian citizenship on
April 22.