Anti-American forces Banding together again at Bandung to oppose the Global War on Terror (GWOT)

The Afro-Asian conference which is being held in April 2005 in Indonesia is not the first of its kind. A similar farce was held in 1956 at the same city. This meeting started the non-aligned movement. The non-aligned movement less non aligned and more unhinged since the motley crowd that gathered there used the label non-alignment to cover up an anti-Western (and specifically anti-American) outlook, that was reflected in their foreign policies. The were the hand-maiden for the now defunct USSR and Communist Bloc to forestall any American and Western effort to reorder the world, by bringing liberty to countries behind the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain has collapsed, Communism has collapsed, the USSR has collapsed, but the ire of this motley anti-Western and anti-American crowd has not yet dissipated. So they have gathered once again after 49 years to reaffirm that their appetite for anti-Americanism has still to be whetted! Now they gather again at a time when the whole world has been angered and disturbed by Islamic terrorism.

The original Bandung Conference in 1956 was sponsored by the Asian nationalist leadership of Indonesia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Burma (now Myanmar), and the Philippines. The foremost figure of these nations was Ahmed Sukarno, president of Indonesia, (as now it is Yudhyono) who ruled over a police state, that was overthrown a few years later. Other prominent personalities were Jawaharlal Nehru, prime minister of India, Kwame Nkrumah, prime minister of the Gold Coast (later Ghana), Gamal Abdel Nasser, president of Egypt, Chou En Lai, premier of China, Ho Chi Minh, prime minister of Vietnam, and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem, USA. Lesser-known representatives of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Japan, the Philippines and others. They formed an anti-American bloc at the UN, much like they do today. The only difference is that today they are joined by Les Miserable Français (the miserable French Government) and its camp followers the governments of Germany and now Spain.

It is not known today that the non-Aligned movement was supported by the Pan-Islamic movement and the Pan-Arab Movement.

Pan-Islamic movement

Dr. Mohammed Natsir, former prime minister of Indonesia and at the time head of Indonesia's largest political party, Masjumi, was a leading proponent of a theocratic Muslim state and what he called "Pan-Islam." His conception of "Pan-Islam" was that it would make communism obsolete because it would be "socialist in nature." While it would be internationalist, "Pan-Islam" would be non-aligned and neither communist nor capitalist. He also predicted that the West would collaborate with what the media now calls Muslim "fundamentalists" as a lesser evil against communism.

Pan-Arabism movement

Gamal Abdel Nasser was a prominent figure at Bandung because he was laying the foundations for both Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism, which he would be synonymous with in years to come. He denounced the United Nations and the West for complicity in the displacement of the Palestinians from their homeland. Lebanon, another stronghold of refugees from "Israel," would add its voice. Nasser was a dynamic secular figure who challenged the West by "nationalizing" the Suez Canal (1956) and uniting for a short time Egypt with Syria (the UAR, United Arab Republic) through Michael Aflaq's Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party that has given us Saddam Hussien and Hafez Assad and now Bashar Assad.

Implications of the Farce of the anti-Western gang at Bandung for the GWOT

The downfall of Communism and the disintegration of Communist Eastern Europe followed by that of the Soviet Union, was a demoralizing factor for the motley non-aligned crowd. And for a decade and half since 1990, they were lying low. The Communist bloc was the major sponsor of the non-aligned movement, along with Pan-islamist bloc which was the minor one from 1956 up to 1990.

But now that the major sponsor has been cast into the trashcan of history, the second sponsor is taking on the role of the only surviving sponsor. The re-emerging motley crowd at Bandung is the mask of the pan-Islamism, as was the original one at 1956 a mask for Communism and pan-islamism. The Durban Conference in 2001 was another smaller blip on the farce of non-alignment. The Islamist meet at Putrajaya in the same country (Indonesia) was another blip of the Pan-Islamists, to gather the thread for resisting American efforts to bring democracy and freedom of thought to the Islamic crescent. Almost all those who have banded together are anti-West, except Japan.

We must be on our guard again, now that this motley crowd has decided to meet again at Bandung and collect the thread of their movement that were scattered by the thunderous fall of its till then major sponsor the Communist bloc. Now with the second sponsor, the Islamist bloc coming into its role as the only surviving sponsor, we can expect more animated ani-Americanism at that talking shop the UN. Now the Islamist blocs mask - the non-aligned movement would hav lusty support from France till Chirac is not voted out by the French people.

We may note that for all its fanfare, the Bandung Conference has not been grace by any major Western power and neither President Bush, nor Prime Minister Blair has sent any congratulatory message to its sponsors. In this too, we can see the lines of estrangement being drawn. In the coming months (during the liberation of Iran) and years thereafter through the prosecution of the GWOT we shall see how the Bandung Band majorly has a nusciance value, as had its predecessor did from1956 to 1990.

Story Credits: Jonathan Tisdall at Aftenposten English Web Desk