History will judge Asian-African Summit

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Bandung

Fifty years ago, within these walls, the first generation of leaders of the two great continents of Asia and Africa came together and held the first Asian-African Conference.

Here they carried out a truly heroic deed; they gave voice to the voiceless. Through them spoke the hundreds of millions who populated Asia and Africa, and who had, until then, languished in silence.

They spoke of their yearning for freedom, which could not be denied. They expressed their hunger for peace, without which there could be no freedom.

They made this clear: what they wanted was true peace, not the peace between all-powerful master and helpless slave, nor the peace of the graveyard that comes after violent conflict.

It must be a peace born of goodwill between equals.

They affirmed that all nations, all human beings are equals by virtue of their humanity. And all have an equal right to live -- not just survive but to live in freedom, which is the most fundamental of human rights.

This is the essence of the Dasa Sila Bandung, which they laid down as a code of ethics for international relations.

To help achieve peace, they would work in concert to bring back the gift of reason to a global landscape unreasonably divided into power blocs. They would therefore uphold and promote the principles and ideals engraved in the Charter of the United Nations.

That desire for peace was the seed that would eventually sprout into the Non-Aligned Movement, the greatest movement for peace that the world has ever seen.

They also spoke of their desire for economic and social development, without which there could be no human dignity. They would work closely to redeem themselves from poverty, ignorance and prejudice.

This determination to work together, this deep sense of kinship among Asian and African nations came to be known as the Bandung Spirit. I like to think, however, that this Spirit was already developing long before Bandung gave it a name.

Since ancient times, there has been a great deal of cultural and commercial contact between our continents. The immensity of the Indian Ocean has never been an impassable barrier. It has always been a busy highway.

Time and again, adventurers, missionaries, traders, envoys and exiles from one continent crossed over to the other. They did so at a frequency that was amazing -- since they did not have the benefit of modern technology.

But the first major demonstration of the spirit of Asian- African solidarity and kinship would not take place until the middle of the 20th century.

That was in 1949 in New Delhi where the Conference of Asian and African Nations gave notice to the world that they were all solidly behind the Republic of Indonesia in its revolutionary struggle for independence and sovereignty.

As early as 1947, several African and Middle Eastern as well as Asian countries had been individually supporting the Indonesian revolution. But they all came out in force together for Indonesia in 1949.

That crucial demonstration of Asian-African solidarity helped ensure the survival of our young Republic. Indonesia may therefore be regarded as the first child of Asian-African solidarity.

Indonesia seized a historic opportunity to return the favor by hosting the Asian-African Conference in Bandung in 1955. That was when the spirit of Asian-African solidarity assumed a proper name and a reference point.

Participants and sympathetic observers went so far as to call Bandung the Peace Capital of Asia-Africa. Humbly we in Indonesia accept that designation for this highland city. We do so in honor of the statesmen who labored here 50 years ago in the name of peace.

Since that time, too, the Bandung Spirit has been a guide and a rallying cry for generations of Asian and African leaders. It was this same Spirit that inspired us yesterday in Jakarta to establish a New Asian-African Strategic Partnership.

Through this partnership we will pool together the vast resources and the tremendous creative energies of Asia and Africa to solve some of the most persistent problems of development we are facing.

Through this partnership we will contribute significantly to the ultimate conquest of poverty as a constant torment of the human condition.

And through this partnership we will advance the cause of peace, equitable prosperity and social justice.

One day all of us who are gathered here will be judged by history. That judgment will not be based on what we say here nor on what we said at the Summit we just held.

History will judge us on the basis of what we do in the days, months and years ahead -- whether we are faithful to the Bandung Spirit or if we betray it through failure of political nerve.

We will be judged on how dedicated we are to our Strategic Partnership, on whether we can make it work to ensure a better life for our children's children.

Let us therefore join hands in a prayer that we will deserve the kindness of history.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivered this speech on Sunday during the closing ceremony of the observance of the 50th anniversary of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung.