Passing the torch

It befits the leadership style of President Soeharto that on Wednesday the Indonesian head of state formally ended his chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) with a call for the 113 member countries to continue working towards the establishment of a new world order ensuring social justice, welfare and peace for all.

The world's economic and political landscape has undergone radical transformation since the movement was born at a summit meeting on Sept. 1, 1961 in Belgrade, the capital of what was then Yugoslavia. In the Cold War climate of those days, leaders of the 25 developing countries -- all African and Asian with the exception of Yugoslavia and Cyprus -- agreed to adopt a strategy of political neutrality, or non-alignment, with regard to the two major political blocks led by the Soviet Union and the United States.

True, looking back on the beginnings of the movement one could say that the spirit of peace and equality among nations was, at least in principle, always there. The first-ever summit meeting of Asian and African countries, held in Bandung, West Java, in 1955, presaged the birth of NAM. It adopted a 10-point declaration on world peace and cooperation, which advocated, among other things, respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations, recognition of the political equality of all races and nations, abstention from the use of force, and settlement of international disputes and grievances by peaceful means.

Those were the lofty ideals which inspired the member countries of the movement to maintain their existence as politically and ideologically independent states. Yet, as many of us remember, the ability to resist the pull of the two opposing blocks was not easy. During the NAM foreign ministers meeting in Georgetown in 1972, for example, Indonesia walked out of the meeting, protesting what it regarded as the movement's unhealthy drift towards one of the then two superpowers.

The world has since changed dramatically. As the dominance of the two mutually confrontational blocks vanished, the NAM, having lost the initial reason for its existence, could easily have lost its orientation and become a non-player on the world political stage. Instead, it has gained considerable credibility as a responsible defender of the interests of the developing world. There can be no denying that this has been due to the kind of cool and rational leadership which President Soeharto has displayed over the past three years as the movement's chairman.

We believe it would serve the movement well to perpetuate this kind of leadership in the coming years. As President Soeharto remarked in his address in Cartagena on Wednesday, the challenges that lie ahead are still formidable. Debt problems, for example, still strangle the poorest countries of the world. The world economy is still far from equitable. Local conflicts continue to prevail and indeed tend to escalate in some parts of the world.

In the light of these challenges we believe the President's call for continued efforts towards a new world order based on social justice, welfare and peace is more relevant than ever.