Long Live the Legacy of the Bandung Conference

Wen Ying

In 1954,Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai flew to India and Myanmar for bilateral visits. Among the outcomes of his trips were joint statements that articulated key principles the nations saw as fundamental to international relations: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. They were known as the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

Almost a year later in Bandung, they were expanded into ten principles at “the first intercontinental conference of coloured peoples in the history of mankind”—in the words of Indonesia’s founding father Sukarno. That was a time when national independence was a banner flying high across Asia, Africa and Latin America and bitter struggles were underway to break the shackles of colonialism. 

Bandung’s powerful call for sovereign equality, the core of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, was a much-needed morale booster, an eloquent expression of the enslaved nations’ yearning to be free, and the conceptual start of a more equal world. It captured and accelerated the great awakening of the Global South. 

But when developing countries move from gaining political independence to pursuing economic prosperity, they find a biased global economic system. Capital, technology and rules are controlled by a few. Some countries have had disastrous experiences with imported developmental models. In times of distress, they turned to the Bretton Woods institutions, but more often than not the tough conditions only made things worse, not better. Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz noted that “failures in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America have reinforced the doubts about the Washington Consensus strategies.” 

It turns out the struggle for independence is unfinished. Another awakening of the Global South has just begun. The launch of ASEAN’s Vision 2045, the pursuit of Chinese modernization, and the expansion of BRICS are encouraging examples. Dar es Salaam Consensus, recently outlined by a group of scholars at a think tank event in Tanzania’s capital, calls for “exploring modernization models based on cultural characteristics and development needs.” 

Once again, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence can safeguard and accelerate the new awakening. Developing countries, when trying out diverse development models, should not be subject to outside pressure or interference. They should not be hampered by wars on their doorstep or spillovers from far-away conflicts. They should be able to choose their own economic and trade partners. They should be able to grow as fast as they can without being seen as a threat.

When the Global South attain economic as well as political independence, they can help make the world a better place, one where the law of the jungle will be replaced by a human community of shared future.  

Indonesia—host of the 1955 Bandung Conference, proud advocate of the principle of bebas dan aktif, and one of the world’s fastest growing economies built on its homegrown philosophy of Pancasila—stands as a stellar example of living by and promoting these critically important principles. 

Wen Ying is a political commentator who has contributed to China-US Focus,The Star, the European Sting, etc.