Internationalism's high noon at Bandung summit

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".