By Herman Tiu Laurel

 

Just over a week ago Beijing hosted a global conference commemorating the 70^th anniversary of the 1955 Bandung Conference that brought together for the first time in history the nations of what we call today the Global South, or better still “The Global Majority” to celebrate and discuss their common aspiration to rise above the era of colonialism and pursue economic development and emancipation.

It was the first major Asian-African conference of twenty-nine countries representing 1.5-billion people or 54% of the world’s population at that time, which took place on the 18^th to the 24^th of April 1955 at Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The conference was organized by Indonesia, Myanmar, India, Ceylon and Pakistan, with a pivotal role played by China, while the Philippines despite its alignment with the West sent a delegation.

Significantly, the Bandung Conference laid the groundwork for the eventual establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961 which now counts 120 member states, 20 observer states and 10 international organizations aspiring to steer clear of the conflicting pressures of the powerful major states in the world, and is evolving a new vision for a multipolar world in the 21^st Century with BRICS.

The ACPSSII, Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute, remembers to remember the momentous Bandung Conference that first consolidated the post-colonial aspirations of the then dubbed Third World nations, that inspired the drive of these nations towards liberation of their societies and economies from the stages of underdevelopment to full-blown industrializing societies today emancipating from centuries of colonialism.

The Philippines was also deeply inspired by the events at the 1955 Bandung Conference leading subsequently to the initiative of the then president of the country built upon the ”Spirit of Bandung” to forge the Manila Accord aiming to establish closer ties among the Indo-Malay peoples of the Philippines-Malaysia-Indonesia and the Manila Declaration towards a Greater Malayan Confederation then called MAPHILINDO.

Over the course of the seven decades since the Bandung Conference some nations rose faster than others, while some nations faced greater challenges from the former colonial powers than others. In the 21^st Century some of the most successful Third World countries like China have come together to advance the cause even further, with India, Brazil, South Africa and Russia, the BRICS Plus has been formed representing 54.6% of the World’s population.

The BRICS Plus now represent 35% of global GDP compared to the former colonial countries in the G-7’s 25.4%, and with the re-organization of the global trading architecture in the wake of the current tariff wars waged by the U.S., it is apparent that the G-7 will be breaking away and aligning with the BRICS Global Majority towards the vison of the multipolar world and what China envisions as a “Community of Shared Future for Mankind.”

The Philippine government and the national discourse has missed the commemoration of the 70^th anniversary of the Bandung Conference and deprived the Filipino nation its moment of recollection of the aspiration of a long line of Philippine national heroes for liberation from colonialism from Gabriela Silang to Jose Rizal and shared with Asia in general exemplified by the anti-colonial cooperation between Sun Yat Sen and Mariano Ponce.

Amid the current government of the Philippines return to vassalage to the Western colonial power, i.e. the U.S. and its warmongering Deep State, the ACPSSII will not allow the continuing aspiration and indefatigable effort of the Filipino nation, an Asian nation, a mover in the Bandung Conference, to wane. We are calling for a relighting of the Filipino flame for independence and restoration of the Independent Foreign Policy.

We are calling for the removal again of the unconstitutional U.S. Bases in the Philippines, its troops and missiles, its ships and planes. We are calling for the return of the Philippines to active participation in BRICS Plus and all its initiatives, as well as the Belt ad Road Initiative linking the Philippines to new world of the Global Majority’s economic development, progress and prosperity.

   

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