TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The 60-year commemoration of the historic Asia-Africa Conference will be the first major international event hosted by President Joko Widodo. Costing more than Rp200 billion, it will also be the forum on which Jokowi can restore his dignity, after his disastrous failure to deliver his presidential address at the recent congress of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in Bali.
Undermined at Bali, the president will be able to shine again in Bandung, a gala event that is expected to be attended by at least 109 countries and at least 25 heads of states and governments. He, the president elected by the people, will lead the 'Bandung Walk' reconstructing the one six decades ago, from Hotel Savoy Homann to Freedom House (Gedung Merdeka), venue of that first Asia-Africa Conference.
Indeed, the conference brings to mind milestones and memorable events. It was, after all, a time when the struggle against anti-colonialism was happening everywhere, providing the opportunity for charismatic leaders like Sukarno, to make their mark. None of the initiators of that Bandung conference was more than 66 years old. None of them ever led political parties for more than 15 years.
When Sukarno led the 'Bandung Walk' in 1955, he was just 54 years old. With him were Egypt's 47-year-old Gamal Abdel Nasser, who a year earlier had overthrown the president, General Muhammad Najib. The oldest leader among them was 66-year-old Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India's prime minister. But the leader who attracted the most attention was 57-year-old Zhou Enlai, prime minister of the six-year-old People's Republic of China. Zhou, founder of the French branch of China's Communist Party, became his nation's premier for the next 27 years, until his death.
The delegates came from many countries which had recently gained independence from their colonial masters. They gathered at a time of global unease and tension, in the aftermath of World War II which divided the geopolitical map into the western and eastern blocks. Sukarno, who conceived the conference and his fellow leaders of the 'Southern' hemisphere, believed that should not be the case. That between the East and the West was the non-block, the non-aligned block, which gained credibility after the Asia-Africa Conference.
For Indonesia, 1955 was a year that divided the 'before' and the 'after' the line between 1945-1955 and 1955-1965. The first 10 years were marked by general elections and the Asia-Africa Conference. The second was filled with political conflicts and economic bankruptcy, which reached its climax in 1965.
Following the 1955 general elections, the Indonesian Communist Party surprisingly won 16.36 percent and 39 seats, coming fourth behind the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), the Masyumi and the Nahdlatul Ulama. The Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI), the party most critical of Sukarno and most disapproving of the Asia-Africa Conference, only won 1.99 percent, five parliamentary seats and was eighth in line.
As such, 1955 can be seen as the year when Sukarno 'turned' leftwards. Five years later, Sukarno dissolved the PSI and Masyumi, one year after he issued the 1959 July 5 Decree and returned to the 1945 Constitution, announcing the Political Manifesto (Manipol). The liberal democracy of the previous years became a guided democracy.
As he crowned himself with the title 'Great Revolutionary Leader' and was accorded 'President for Life' by the ad hoc People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Sukarno was imbued with the spirit of rallying likeminded anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist forces. In 1963, after withdrawing from the Olympics, he hosted the Games of the New Emerging Forces (Ganefo). Then he took a shockingly unforeseen decision: he withdrew from membership of the United Nations.
His next plan was to establish a 'Counter-United Nations' through the Conference of the New Emerging Forces (Conefo), which collapsed because of the fatal September 30 incident. But the Conefo building had been built, so today it is known as the DPR/MPR building.
The 60-year commemoration of the Asia-Africa Conference should not be disassociated from that tumultuous historical background. It should be more than a costly celebration of laughter and flowers, like pretty bubbles that eventually burst and disappear.
Sukarno once warned, "Don't ever abandon history" because there are always two sides to it: the dark side and the bright side. (*)
Read the full story in this week's Tempo English Special Edition on Asia Africa Conference
