Kuala Lampur, April 24 -- There was a time-not long after the last colonial ships slipped away - when Asia looked in the mirror and saw possibility. Not a copy of the West. Not a simulation of power. But something raw, rooted, and ready to be rebuilt from the ground up.

At Bandung in 1955, leaders from across the newly unshackled South-Nehru, Nasser, Sukarno, Zhou-stood together and dared to imagine a different kind of future. One where solidarity trumped alignment. Where village reform mattered as much as trade pacts. Where we didn't have to beg for seats at Western tables because we were setting our own.

Somewhere along the way, we got distracted.

China powered ahead with brute discipline and silent ambition. India got caught in its ...