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Revive the 'Bandung Spirit'

THE second Asia-Africa Summit of leaders of State from these predominant continents of the globe, which opens in Jakarta today, is solid proof that the "Spirit of Bandung" of 1955, is continuing to flourish, in the current international political regime.

In fact a commemorative meeting of relevant State representatives, to mark the golden jubilee of the epochal Bandung conference will open on April 24 in the same region of Indonesia from which the original forum took its name.

We have, no doubt, come a long way from those times when Third World unity and comparatively concerted action was possible on a number of fronts - economic, political and cultural.

The need for cooperation and solidarity among the world's poor - the majority of whom were ex-colonies - was so insistent that a Third World forum, on the lines of that which was held in Bandung in 1955, was a natural consequence of the commonality of interests which were shared by these states.

As is well known, countries such as India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka played a major role in the conduct of this conference, which for the first time in the history of modern world politics, brought a considerable section of the world's poor to the same stage for the purpose of making known, their common aspirations and ideals.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which blazed a new trail in world politics, was a spontaneous outgrowth of the Bandung Conference, which could have been considered an epitome of the Third World's desire for political, economic and cultural independence.

Today, in the aftermath of the Cold War, which kept the world divided on the basis of rival power blocs, it is possible to argue about the usefulness of the NAM vision, which, essentially, based itself on the belief that a Middle Path in world politics is best, but there is no gainsaying the fact that it offered the world's powerless a peaceful and independent path to development, in contrast to the self-destructive power politics bred by the Cold War rivals.

Despite the cynical, derisive pronouncements which greet the NAM today, from some quarters, we say that this movement of the poor and powerless of the world, which had its origins in the 'Bandung Spirit', has not lost its usefulness. The proof of this is the summit today of Asian and African states, which comprise the majority of the world's populace.

The issues which bring them together were and are the lifeblood of the NAM - for instance, economic cooperation and independence, solidarity and self-help among the poor of this world.

Therefore, it could be readily said that the 'Bandung Spirit' should not merely be revisited but actively revived among the poor.

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