The 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung was
held under the shadow of colonialism and certain political blocs that dictated
much of international affairs at that time. The conference was attended by
charismatic leaders of Asia (23) and Africa (6) who had only just recently led
their nations to independence.
It was an attempt to find an alternative
world order — a harmonious coexistence among nations — and to build economic
and political collaboration. Specifically, it was also an attempt to establish
their identity as a group of nations that valued sovereignty and challenged
colonialism. Sixty years have passed and we are now living in a very different
world. The decolonization process is complete; the Cold War is over and the
Soviet bloc has lost, even the Soviet Union no longer exists; and, of course,
as Thomas Friedman said, the world is flat.
History, to borrow from Francis
Fukuyama, has ended, and liberalism/capitalism has won; therefore, there is
only one trajectory toward which the world is heading: global capitalism.
Furthermore, some would also argue that the economic projects (or more
precisely economic ideas) that came out of or were inspired by the 1955 Bandung
Conference failed to realize the dreams of the conference. Collaboration
between nations following the conference was unable to translate its political
and economic insights into a workable framework, both in the context of
South-South and South-North relations.
This failure, which is clearly
reflected in the poverty and miserable human conditions in much of Asia and
Africa long after the conference, reminds us that the conference had no
significant impact on the lives of most Asians and Africans, let alone offering
an alternative world order. Seen from this perspective, the Asian-African
Conference is just one episode in a history that is now irrelevant. So, is
there really a reason to commemorate and, aside from the pom-poms, what should
we expect from the 2015 commemoration?
It is exactly because many of the
dreams of the 1955 Bandung Conference were not realized that it is important to
commemorate it. The world today is no less fragile than it was in 1955. In its
poverty, Africa today still faces fatal health problems such as HIV/AIDS and
Ebola. Malaria and tuberculosis still kill millions in the continent because
the governments are unable to deliver even the most basic health services. The
1955 Asian-African Conference offered a vision of struggle against exploitation
and domination. For the participating nations, it was also a quest for
psychological strength to play a role in creating a world characterized by a
peaceful and harmonious coexistence between nations and people.
The cynics of the world at the
time mocked the conference. What could these countries — whose population was
illiterate, impoverished and recently independent — do? Sukarno’s answer to
that question was very inspiring: “We can do a lot! We can inject the voice of
reason into world affairs. We can mobilize all the spiritual, all the moral,
all the political strength of Asia and Africa on the side of peace. Yes, we!
We, the peoples of Asia and Africa, 1,400,000,000 strong, far more than half
the human population of the world, we can mobilize what I have called the Moral
Violence of Nations in favor of peace. We can demonstrate to the minority of
the world that lives on the other continents that we, the majority, are for
peace, not for war, and that whatever strength we have will always be thrown on
the side of peace.”
Sukarno’s speech epitomizes the
exuberant spirit and self-confidence of these new emerging nations, despite the
seemingly impossible situations they were in. Richard Wright, the
African-American journalist who attended the conference, admiringly reported in
his book The Color Curtain (1956), that in Bandung “the despised, the insulted,
the dispossessed — in short, the underdogs of the human race were meeting. Here
were class and racial and religious consciousness on a global scale.”
It is this global consciousness,
enthusiasm and confidence that the “underdogs of the world” can do something
for peace and to alleviate human suffering that needs to be revived. Of course,
just the revival of the spirit will not be sufficient. Can today’s underdogs of
the world show the “moral violence” in the face of poverty, war, terrorism,
ethnic and religious conflict, intolerance, discrimination and economic exploitation
often blatantly displayed around the world today? That is (still) the challenge
of this conference.
Abdul Malik Gismar is associate
director of Paramadina Graduate School, Jakarta
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