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Date
: 22/04/2005
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mbeki: Asia-African Summit
Opening statement of the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, at
the summit meeting of the new Asian-African Strategic Partnership,
Jakarta, Indonesia
Your Excellency Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic
of Indonesia;
Your Majesties,
Your Highnesses,
Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government,
Your Excellencies Ministers and Ambassadors,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
The historic gathering in Bandung in 1955 was a product of the
victorious struggles waged by those whom the colonisers had defined
as sub-human. If there had been no struggle, Bandung would not have
taken place.
The historic gathering in Bandung in 1955 was a conclave of
fighters for the liberation of those whom an entire epoch in human
history had defined as dependent peoples, who had been condemned to
occupy a position of subservience at the feet of those who had
appointed themselves our masters.
The historic gathering in Bandung in 1955 was a celebration of the
dawning of liberty for those that had been oppressed, and a council
of war convened to determine what those who had been oppressed
together should together do with the freedom they had won.
The historic gathering in Bandung in 1955 met to answer the
question of what we meant when we spoke about the exercise of our
right to self-determination.
When it answered that question, it said – all Asia shall be
free! all Africa shall be free!
It said that regardless of the might of those who had appointed
themselves our superiors, the sovereign peoples of Africa and Asia
would evolve their own political, economic and social systems, and
defend their right freely to determine their destinies.
It said that free Asia and free Africa would not revisit the denial
of human rights on their peoples, whose fundamental rights had been
denied by the system of colonialism and imperialism from which they
had liberated themselves.
It said that the peoples of Asia and Africa would rebuild their
cultures and identities, refusing to accept that these were
primitive expressions of a barbaric past that had to give way to
what was fondly described as Western civilisation.
When the historic gathering in Bandung in 1955 sought to answer the
question what we meant when we spoke about the exercise of our
right to self-determination, it said we will never allow that
humanity itself should be obliterated from the face of the earth
through the use of nuclear and other weapons of mass
destruction.
It said there should be war no more, no wanton wastage of human
life by resort to the murderous thunder of the guns, and therefore
that all international disputes should be solved by negotiation, by
mediation and arbitration, by peaceful means.
It said that no longer should the people of Asia and Africa be
condemned for all time to suffer from the pain and indignity of
poverty, deprivation and underdevelopment, which resulted in these
masses being described as the wretched of the earth.
When the historic gathering in Bandung in 1955 projected the vision
we have described, it did not count on the benevolence of others to
bring about this outcome. It was confident that acting in unity,
the peoples of Africa and Asia had the strength to create the new
world order born of their liberation and their ability to be makers
of history.
Expressing this determination, Jawaharlal Nehru sounded the clarion
call when he told his fellow freedom fighters at Bandung –
“If we have to stand alone, we will stand by ourselves
whatever happens…and we propose to face all
consequences…I know what my people are. But I know also that
if we rely on others, whatever great powers they might be, if we
look to them for sustenance, then we are weak
indeed…”
The liberation fighters who met in Bandung in 1955 did not want to
look others for sustenance, whatever great powers they might be, in
the same way as they had not looked to others for sustenance,
whatever great powers they might be, as they fought to free their
countries and peoples from the heavy yoke of colonialism and
imperialism.
The very fact of the historic meeting in Bandung in 1955 made the
bold statement that the liberated peoples of Asia and Africa would
stand alone if they had to, and face the consequences, and that
they would not impose on themselves the celebration of their own
weakness by underestimating their own strength, awed by the might
of others.
We have gathered in Jakarta and will conclude our work in Bandung,
exactly 50 years after the generation of freedom fighters who
brought us our liberation met in Bandung.
The masses of our people will presume that we took the decision to
revisit Bandung on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the
historic get-together of 1955 because we are determined to walk in
the footsteps of the great apostles of liberty who defined the
objectives that Africa and Asia had to achieve.
Accordingly, they will be entitled to ask of us whether we made a
serious assessment of the progress we have made to realise the
goals set in Bandung in 1955. They will be right to demand that we
tell them what we have decided to do to achieve such progress if
none has been made.
They will be correct to inquire from us what we have resolved to do
to consolidate the unity of the peoples of Asia and Africa, to use
our combined strength to give life to the vision that emanated from
Bandung in 1955.
They will be correct to ask whether we have not relied too much on
sustenance by others, having even sub-consciously defined ourselves
as being too weak to rely on ourselves to bring about a new world
order that would be responsive to the needs and aspirations of the
billions we represent, the same masses who were represented by the
freedom fighters who gathered in Bandung in 1955.
The obvious need for us to respect our obligation to account to the
people will require that we answer all these questions honestly. We
will also have to do this because our decisions will have to give
real meaning to the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership we have
convened to establish.
Surely, the objectives we seek to achieve demand of us that we
should be frank and open about the reality we face, estimate our
capabilities as accurately as possible, and set ourselves
achievable goals, consistent with the vision spelt out by the
giants who met in Bandung in 1955.
There is no doubt that we can report to our peoples that we are
today stronger than we were 50 years ago, that we have much better
possibilities to achieve the vision of 1955 than the generation of
’55 had.
Today, the peoples of Asia and Africa are free. That said, we
continue to face the serious and urgent challenge to help realise
the aspirations of the people of Palestine and a just and lasting
peace in the Middle East.
Whatever the difficulties, we have succeeded to defend the
independence of our countries and thus entrenched the possibility
for us to determine our destiny.
The threat of the immolation of humanity through the use of weapons
of mass destruction in a Third World War has receded, even as we
continue to face the challenge of ensuring universal disarmament
and the destruction of all weapons of mass destruction.
A good number of our countries have made important strides towards
building modern economies capable of incrementally meeting the goal
of achieving a better life for the billions of people we represent.
Present among us are representatives of countries of the South that
play an important part in shaping the world economy.
We have made significant strides towards giving real meaning to the
critical objective of South-South co-operation, the co-operation
visualised by the freedom fighters who met in Bandung in 1955,
which we seek radically to expand through the establishment of the
New Asian-African Strategic Partnership.
We have built some of the institutional mechanisms we need to
enable us to act together to achieve our common goals. These
include the African Union, its development programme New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), ASEAN and
others.
Despite all this progress, we continue to face the daunting
challenge to eradicate the poverty and underdevelopment that
afflict millions of our peoples, which coexist side by side with
the availability of sufficient resources in the global economy to
make poverty history.
Furthermore, everyday the process of globalisation emphasises the
gross imbalance in the global distribution of power, making it
imperative that we use our collective strength urgently to achieve
the restructuring and democratisation of the United Nations and
other multi-lateral organisations.
When he spoke in Bandung in 1955, Jawaharlal Nehru said: “I
speak with the greatest respect of (the) Great Powers because they
are not only great in military might, but (also) in development, in
culture, in civilisation. But I do submit that greatness sometimes
brings quite false values, false standards.”
President Sukarno said: “Perhaps now more than at any other
moment in the history of the world, society, government and
statesmanship need to be based upon the highest code of morality
and ethics. And in political terms, what is the highest code of
morality? It is the subordination of everything to the well being
of mankind. But today we are faced with a situation where the well
being of mankind is not always the primary consideration. Many who
are in places of power think, rather, of controlling the
world…
“What can we do? We can do much! We can inject the voice of
reason into world affairs. We can mobilise all the spiritual, all
the moral, all the political strength of Asia and Africa,
1,400,000,000 strong, far more than half the human population of
the world…”
I am honoured to wish this historic second Asian-African Conference
success, convinced that we have the will to advance the cause
pioneered by some of the greatest sons and daughters of Africa and
Asia. We are most grateful to President Yudhoyono, the government
and people of Indonesia who have opened their hearts and home to
all of us, despite the heavy burdens imposed on them by the recent
natural disasters that have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives
and caused incalculable destruction.
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