Internationalism's high noon at Bandung summit

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat and Yuli Sri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

It was the high noon of Third World internationalism as Asia and Africa's most prominent leaders gathered in Bandung on Sunday to rekindle the spirit of cooperation first imbibed 50 years ago.

The ceremonial activities of the golden jubilee of the 1955 Bandung conference in the West Java capital were not in themselves substantive, but the symbolic nature resonated a commitment to principles laid down half a century ago and drafted into action plans in meetings the preceding two days in Jakarta.

"We are here to remember and to honor," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his address. "But we also come to reaffirm and to rejuvenate".

The spirit of remembrance was the theme of the day's activities and speeches.

Proceedings in Bandung lasted just seven hours. After arriving on special Garuda Airways flights from Jakarta, the leaders were bussed to the Hotel Savoy Homann to begin the historical 50-meter walk toward the Merdeka Building, the venue of the original conference.

Speeches were heard from the Indonesian host, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as the African representative, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the Asian representative, and Trinidad and Tobago President George Maxwell Richards speaking on behalf of observer non-Asian-African countries.

Obasanjo described it as "a rendezvous with history", while Singh noted that the assembled leaders had "literally followed in the footsteps of our founding fathers".

The 1955 conference was the Third World's coming of age as 29 leaders of Asian and African countries gathered to set out a doctrine of mutual cooperation, non-intervention, independence and a rejection of superpower rivalry. This commitment was enshrined in the 10 Bandung Principles.

The spirit of cooperation evolved into the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement, which Susilo on Sunday described as "the greatest movement for peace the world has ever seen".

Susilo also paid tribute to the underlying spirit of cooperation that existed between the two continents even before the 1955 conference. It was this spirit that brought support for and recognition of Indonesia's independence.

"Indonesia may, therefore, be regarded as the first child of Asian-African unity," he remarked.

The intent to rekindle the spirit of cooperation was hammered out in a document agreed upon during the summit in Jakarta the previous two days, but officially launched in Bandung on Sunday through the formal signing of the declaration on the New Asian- African Strategic Partnership (NAASP) by the summit's two co- hosts -- Susilo and South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Obasanjo described the NAASP as a consolidation of the gains of cooperation over the past 50 years.

Both he and Singh underscored the need to put the spirit of the two continents' strategic partnership into practice without neglecting complementary relations with the wider world.

Singh said solutions to many problems were "available among us" and urged countries to "borrow best practices".

Nevertheless he warned that solutions "cannot be transplanted from outside" since any comprehensive resolution to national issues must be intrinsic to those respective states.

He went on to call on fellow leaders to make good on the sacred societal trust placed in them by their people, by expending that trust for common good -- improved basic services.

The final leader to speak at the Merdeka Building was President Richards, who stole the show with a speech nearly three times longer than those of the other three leaders.

After a performance from the Padjadjaran University choir the leaders were ushered to their buses for a tree planting ceremony in Tegalega Park.

Despite the 25 varieties of Asian and African plants available and picked at random for the leaders, Susilo, Mbeki and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan were given the same tree known as Cerbera odolum.

"You can liken this planting ceremony to planting a new spirit of unity," the Indonesian foreign ministry's director for Africa, Bali Moniaga, said.

The high-level junket in Bandung ended with a lunch hosted by West Java Governor D. Setiawan before the mass departure to Jakarta at 3 p.m.

Most leaders will have left Indonesia by Monday afternoon after a total of three days in the country. Hopefully the words of Susilo's closing statement in Bandung will continue to resonate in their minds: "History will judge us. Whether we are true to the Bandung spirit, or we fail it through failure of political nerve".