The Spirit of Bandung

CONFERENCE REPORT, 2015

It is a report of an International and Multidisciplinary Conference in the framework of a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the 1955 Bandung Asian-African Conference that took place in Jakarta, Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia, on October 27-31, 2015. The conference was organised in plenary and parallel seminars under transversal themes HISTORY and GENDER, five sectorial themes following the five pillars of sustainable development: CULTURE, ECOLOGY, ECONOMY, POLITICS AND SPIRITUALITY & RELIGION, and two special sessions due to the urgency of the case: PALESTINE and ROHINGYA. The conference involved 83 speakers and chairs coming from 33 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Sudan, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, Uruguay, United States of America, Zimbabwe. This report includes the concept, programme, speeches, abstracts, list of participants and photos of the conference and its related events. A4, 100 pages of text and photos.

Luis Eslava, Michael Fakhri, and Vasuki Nesiah, eds., Bandung, the Global South, and International Law: Critical Pasts and Pending Futures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017) , 2017

Bandung: Journal of the Global South, 2015

In April 1955, a historic conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia. Political leaders from 29 Asian and African countries gathered on the initiative of the leaders from China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and Myanmar, to address the issues about economic co-operation, self-determination, decolonization and the peace. These ideas contributed to the creation of the non-alignment movement (NAM). However, in Africa, Nkrumah’s proposal for political unity was defeated, which led to the creation of the Organization of the African Unity as a compromise. NAM was later penetrated from within by the forces of imperialism, notably dictatorships and authoritarian regimes supported by the United States, the Soviet Union, the former colonial powers and their local cronies, weakening its functionality.

This article examines the extent to which international society has been able to accommodate challenges such as the mid twentieth century ‘revolt against the West’ and the twenty-first-century rise of new (especially non-Western) great powers. The Bandung conference of 1955 has commonly been seen as posing a threat to the fabric of international society by proliferating cultural and political differences. The authors show, on the contrary, that the political project of anti-colonialism and peaceful coexistence expressed at Bandung was actually consistent with a pluralist conception of international society, even if Western powers and intellectuals at the time failed to notice. The non-Western countries represented at Bandung were intent on expunging international society of the structures and practices of racism and colonialism so as to strengthen the foundations of a pluralistic international society better able to accommodate cultural and political differences.

BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces, 2018

Bandung+60 Declaration is one of the outcomes of the Commemorative Conference of the 60th anniversary of the 1955 Bandung Conference organised on October 27-31, 2015, in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia, by academics and activists of social and solidarity movements accross the world. The declaration was formulated by around 80 conference participants coming from twenty-six countries (Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Sudan, Switzerland, Thailand, Zimbabwe). The document consists of : I. GENERAL STATEMENT ; II. OUTCOMES OF THE CONFERENCE ; III. ROADMAP ; APPENDIX 1: DRAFT PROPOSAL FOR A PROGRAMME OF ASIAN-AFRICAN ACADEMIC COOPERATION ; APPENDIX 2: BANDUNG+60 CONFERENCE: METHOD, TEAMWORK, SPEAKERS, CHAIRS, COUNTRIES OF PARTICIPANTS, ORGANISATION OF THE CONFERENCE. The document was submitted to the President of the Republic of Indonesia at the end of the conference. Format: A4, cover and text, 27 pages. The document was published later as an appendix in Darwis Khudori (ed.), BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces, New Delhi, Aakar Book, 2018, 16cm x 23.5cm, 304p. ISBN 978-93-5002-549-9.

Cold War History, 2016

This article aims to show the relevance of the Bandung Asia Africa Conference in 1955 to the current debate on democracy. It argues that the Bandung Asian-African Conference was the second massive but well coordinated democratic movement on a global scale. It has paved the way for the production of new political space globally as well as for individual nations -- space that is more democratic in nature, where people can claim and exercise their citizenship rights. Reflecting on Soekarno’s speech at the opening of the Asia Africa Conference, this article argues that there is an urgent need for a deeper involvement of political and social forces of the Global South to put themselves as the front liners in defining and making use of democracy, instead of leaving it to be dictated by Neo-liberal lines of thinking. This is so because Indonesian experience during the last 15 years or so has clearly demonstrated the very limits of liberal democracy. This article further argues the need to build a collaborative effort amongst scholars of the Southern Hemisphere to challenge the superiority of liberal ideas and practices of democracy.

BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces, 2018

This article is the introduction to the book “BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces” edited by Darwis Khudori. It presents the vision of the author on Bandung Conference in global history and perspective as well as his overview on the articles published in the book and his way to put them together in a certain order. It consists of the following sub-titles: Bandung in Global History - Bandung Conference - Bandung Spirit - Bandung Era - Bandung Constellation - Bandung 60 Years On: What Assessment? - NEFOS or New Emerging Forces - Indonesia: Return to the Bandung Spirit - About the book. Ref. Darwis Khudori, BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces, New Delhi, Aakar Book, 2018, 16cm x 23.5cm, 304p. ISBN 978-93-5002-549-9, pp. 1-20.

How important international actors such as France, Great Britain and the United States, viewed the Bandung Conference of 1955 is heavily debated. Furthermore, it remains unclear how the Gold Coast, an emerging power in Africa, perceived the Afro-Asian meeting. This article seeks to illuminate those positions on Bandung through a multi-centric analysis and by reflecting on the importance of Africa for the Afro-Asian agenda. It is argued that, rather than the Cold War, racial solidarity or anti-colonialism, it was development and modernization that shaped the response of conference observers.