Bandung in Retrospect:
YERGAN, MAX
BANDUNG IN RETROSPECT The Asian-African Conference, rather than concentrating on color or territorial solidarity, was concerned with larger world problems By Max Yergan Few recent events have...
...With the possible exception of Egypt, the African countries present sided with the pro-Western, prodemocratic strength of the conference as the only real issue with which the conference dealt...
...As delegation after delegation arrived at Bandung by plane, excitement and interest grew...
...The division was sharpest between the proWestern group led by Turkey, the Philippines...
...It has been reported that the United States "was put on the spot" at Bandung...
...Perhaps the fairest thing to say, then, is that Bandung accurately reflected the present state of world opinion...
...who gained and who lost...
...Liberia and the remainder of the 29 conference countries...
...And, in the numerical sense, the conference was impressive, for it claimed to represent more than half of the world's population...
...The world can be glad that Romulo of the Philippines...
...Out of the Colombo meeting came strong pronouncements against colonialism (Western-style) and support for the independence of Tunisia and Morocco as well as expressions of concern about the Arab refugees of Palestine...
...With a plane accident only a few days behind him...
...He said that the Chinese delegation had not come there to increase differences or divergencies but to find unity and common ground...
...His powerful position made him the Number One figure at the Conference...
...On leaving the airport at Jakarta, for instance, you see in front of you a map some 200 feet square, uniting Africa and Asia...
...He won the Spingarn Medal and the Harmon Award in 1933 for his work in South Africa...
...To be sure, a few speakers tried to capitalize on color and use it as a bloc...
...Iraq, Ethiopia, the Gold Coast...
...Red China, India and Indonesia sought to leave out any reference to Communist colonialism, but the insistence to include it was so strong and irrefutable that the conference finally went on record as "opposed to colonialism in all of its manifestations...
...There has been a slogan, which ran "let Asians fight Asians.' That is precisely what we do not want...
...in which several Chinese Communist officials had been killed...
...Certainly the United States was not on the defensive at Bandung, nor were the internal problems and policies of the United States...
...And nothing of this character came because Red China seemed to overawe strong countries that were under her influence...
...The appeal stirred some emotions, but it did not sway many heads...
...There may not be...
...Here it was decided definitely that an AsianAfrican Conference should be held in April 1955 at Bandung in Indonesia...
...Here we present an appraisal of the meeting by an eye-witness observer, who sets forth bis reactions simply and clearly...
...Color was an outstanding factor of the Bandung Conference...
...As has already been said, it was perhaps the first and largest representation of the non-white world...
...He has bad considerable personal experience with international Communism and has studied it for many years...
...Bandung took fairly good care of the sudden addition to her population...
...The question of Africa at Bandung was highly important...
...3. To consider problems of special interest to Asian and African peoples such as sovereignty, racialism and colonialism...
...Of great emotional significance was the fact that almost all of the people officially present or represented at Bandung were nonwhite...
...Pakistan...
...So eager was he to achieve his end that when Sir John Kotelawala of Ceylon made a slashing attack on Communism...
...It may be asked if there were gains and losses at the Bandung Conference: and...
...Central and Southern Africa, it is already clear that responsible Africans and others related to the African continent will be increasingly confronted with the resulting issues...
...For the first time, responsible spokesmen from 29 Asian and African countries were coming together...
...But the conference saw through Chou's tactics...
...On September 25...
...It will be remembered that the five sponsoring and inviting countries were India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma and Indonesia...
...To be sure, the conference condemned Western colonialism...
...First, it is my strong impression that any persons who entertained ideas of Bandung as representing color or territorial solidarity were most certainly on the losing side...
...When the conference was over, each parly stressed its own high moments...
...But Bandung did no such thing...
...In this connection, I think Prime Minister Nehru lost considerable influence and prestige...
...Ali Sastroamidjojo, said: "Asians will have to make decisions on their own future, without interference by the Western world...
...in fact there need no be...
...Speakers always referred to "the peoples of Asia and Africa...
...India's Nehru, in whose fertile mind the conference was batched, arrived enthusiastic, soon became disgruntled...
...The question may very well be asked: Why was the Bandung conference held...
...In 1930, he was one of the founders of the World Congress for Cultural Freedom...
...If Nehru lost influence (and I think he did...
...Liberia and Thailand) on the one hand...
...Always in speeches at the Conference, the names of the two continents were coupled...
...They were among those leaders who did make a contribution which was not sectional but universal in outlook and which was right because it bad a moral basis...
...Then came the Indian delegation headed by Prime Minister Nehru, the Egyptian headed by Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser, then Turkey, the Philippines...
...Max Yergan became an official of the International YMCA and served in India, East Africa and South Africa until 1937...
...And Chou gave his game away when he stubbornly refused to accept in the final resolutions on colonialism the words "infiltration and subversion" which are applicable only to Communist methods...
...Premier Sastroamidjojo and Prime Minister Nehru together issued a statement that "they discussed also the proposal to have a conference of representatives of Asian and African countries and were agreed that a conference of this kind was desirable and would be helpful in promoting the cause of peace and a common approach to their problems...
...Since 1917, Dr...
...That same day...
...I think that the effort to develop overwhelming anti-Western sentiment at the conference failed...
...another Bandung...
...Asian and African problems," "the territory of Asia and Africa...
...During the months just prior to its opening, Bandung stirred the imagination and attracted attention as no event in Asia or Africa had previously done...
...BANDUNG IN RETROSPECT The Asian-African Conference, rather than concentrating on color or territorial solidarity, was concerned with larger world problems By Max Yergan Few recent events have been so deluged by competing propaganda as the Bandung meeting of 29 Asian and African government officials...
...2. To consider their social, economic and cultural problems...
...Communist Chou En-lai, suave as always, veered and tacked, came off with a few concessions, a few rebuffs...
...There were ample reasons for this...
...Washington started off treating it as a nest of snakes, ended up by claiming it as a victory...
...Indonesia and Burma) was held in Bogor, Indonesia in December 1954...
...Coming from most of Asia, the Near East and North Africa, from Liberia and the Gold Coast, the delegates were a picturesque and colorful group...
...It is reasonable to conclude that he wanted Bandung to back up his speech...
...But the unfailing effort to involve Africa was studied, consistent and the object of shrewd propaganda...
...Largely colonial in status...
...Chou En-lai was exposed...
...if so...
...But Bandung made some points quite clear about color: It fades away before other more important issues...
...Africa fitted into the anti-colonial emphasis which the Conference sponsors had put forward as one of the conference purposes...
...The presence of Africa at the Bandung Conference raises many questions about "the age of Asian expansion...
...Although its hotel and housing facilities were heavily taxed...
...On balance, the United States gained at Bandung and the United States had plenty of friends there...
...Bandung, where the conference was held, is a relatively cool, beautifully laid-out resort town of 750.000 people situated some 2,000 feet above sea-level and less than an hour by plane from the tropical heat of Jakarta, Indonesia's chief city...
...Nehru had laid the basis, in a speech in New Delhi before the Bandung Conference, to show that Western policies were unacceptable to most Asian countries...
...Events which led to the conference moved swiftly...
...Ceylon and Pakistan (supported by Iraq...
...I do not think the evidence bears out any such report...
...What we want is to cooperate with our Asian and African neighbors to live together in friendship and in peaceful co-existence, to strive hard, united in aim for the common benefit of us all...
...Ceylon...
...The purposes were outlined as follows: 1. To promote good-will and cooperation among the nations of Asia and Africa and advance their common interests...
...NOW THAT the Bandung Conference is over and, in the physical sense, behind us, we may look at it more calmly and try to appraise it more accurately...
...Secondly...
...Chou En-lai replied that Sir John's attack had some constructive points...
...They were all invitees...
...At that kind of forum, too many of the countries represented were too vulnerable, in terms of social problems, to point even a drooping finger at the United States...
...And, in view of growing problems between Africans and the half-million Asians in East...
...Burma and sometimes Egypt...
...Most of the countries involved had gained their independence within the past ten years, thus giving exciting historic importance to the gathering...
...on the other, the "neutralist" group among which were India, Indonesia...
...Iran, Sudan...
...First, it must be remembered that no African country, not even Egypt, was among the sponsors...
...I think the greatest weakness of Bandung was the absence of any overwhelming moral or spiritual emphasis...
...Bandung, against the wishes and efforts of Nehru and of course Chou En-lai, exposed and condemned Communist colonialism, I repeat: That was the main achievement of the conference...
...He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the American Committee for Cultural Freedom, and one of its delegates to the Indian Congress for Cultural Freedom in 1951...
...It was at Colombo that, for the first time publicly, the question was raised of the possibility of a conference of Asian and African people...
...On the issue of colonialism, the conference was not prepared just to beat a dying beast (western colonialism) and leave the door open to the vigorous wolves (Communist imperialism and colonialism...
...Premier Chou En-lai came to Bandung prepared to make any concessions in order to get a united front of Asian and African countries...
...but everybody does that...
...Yergan has made two long tours of Africa and has visited Europe and India many times...
...Sir John Kotelawala of Ceylon and Minister Botsio of the Gold Coast were at Bandung...
...That issue was the condemnation of colonialism: Was only Western colonialism to be exposed and condemned, or was the vigorous Communist brand to be included...
...Other issues, such as the present cold-war conflict, economic preferences and deep cultural and religious factors, prevailed...
...It is estimated that about 5.000 people—official delegates, their families and staffs, foreign correspondents and photographers, observers and others from all over the world—were present...
...4. To view the positions of Asia and Africa and their peoples in the world today...
...From nations which have laid claim to these forces, nothing of the sort came...
...But Asians, people of the West and Africans will meet and go on cooperating because they have some leaders who will not permit themselves merely to relive history but will rather contribute to its making...
...Chou En-lai was the most heavily guarded of all delegates...
...He founded the Council on African Affairs, once beaded the National Negro Congress, and has been a lecturer at the City College of New York...
...Finally, a meeting of the heads of the five sponsoring States (India...
...Color yielded to cultural and political issues as well as to religious differences...
...The Red Chinese delegation headed by Premier Chou En-lai arrived at Jakarta on April 16 and went to Bandung the following day...
...1954...
...What is much more significant...
...over a radio broadcast in New Delhi, the Indonesian Premier...
...The Prime Ministers of these countries had already, in the spring of 1954, met at Colombo in Ceylon at the same time that the Geneva Conference was dealing with the Indo-China situation...
Vol. 38 • May 1955 • No. 22
