LAST year, the Nobel awards committee committed a major faux-pas by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Obama, who is a war monger, since he not only accelerated the war in Afghanistan but is responsible for massacring thousands of innocent people in Pakistan and Afghanistan due to collateral damage. President Obama brazenly accepted the Nobel Peace prize, much to the dismay of the thousands of survivors of those killed in Drone attacks and others who have been maimed for life through the cold-hearted attacks authorized by the US President. This year the Nobel Peace Prize has been announced for Liu Xiaobo, an insurgent who has been planning and plotting an insurrection in China. The 54-year-old writer has been a dissident since 1989 and violated the Chinese norms. On 8 December 2008, Liu was formally arrested on 23 June 2009, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” He was tried on the same charges on 23 December 2009, and sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights on 25 December 2009. It is strange that the Nobel Peace prize is very often awarded to dissident leaders in non- western countries. Apart from their opposition to the political system in their countries very little is known for their contribution to peace. This prize should be renamed as Nobel Prize for Politics. It was a peaceful way for them to slam China’s government. How would the US feel if some jailed Black Panther was awarded the Nobel Peace prize? The last few times this award has been passed out is to push certain political views. Through extension, next year’s Nobel Peace Prize should go to the Naxalites, who have been inciting insurrection in India or for that matter Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda, who must be a hero for his people for standing up to the US.
The Nobel Committee for judging awards should be above politics and maintain the spirit of Alfred Nobel, who instituted the prize. The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of the cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895. Peace Prize is meant to award individuals who promote international harmony and friendship, peace and disarmament. Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial departments for violating Chinese law. Awarding the peace to Liu runs completely counter to the principle of the award and is also a desecration of the Peace Prize.”
The Chinese Xinhua News Agency carried a report saying that awarding Liu Xiaobo the prize “defiles” Alfred Nobel’s purpose of creating this prize and “may harm China-Norway relations”. The spokesperson added that Liu had broken Chinese law and his “actions run contrary to the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize.” The institution of the Nobel Prize must be aboveboard and not be dictated by regional or international politics. Last year’s Peace Prize to Obama definitely raised eyebrows. The Nobel Prize awards committee did not respond to the worldwide criticism of announcing the award for Mr. Obama, although it acted sheepishly. It was hoped that good sense would prevail and Mr. Obama himself refuse the award. He however, callously accepted the prize. In continuation of the insensitivity, Mr. Obama has asked China to release Liu Xiaobo, thus meddling in the affairs of China. US decisions in the near past have been anything but rational. On one hand, it is hailing Liu Xiabo, while on the other; Barack Obama’s administration has authorized the assassination of the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a rare move against an American citizen. The Yemen-based al-Awlaki has been linked to the Fort Hood massacre and the attempt in December to blow up a Detroit-bound jet by a man wearing explosives in his underpants. Thus the Nobel Prize Committee’s decisions for naming the laureates for receiving the Peace Prize should be reconsidered and only deserving cases and non-controversial personalities, who have contributed to promote peace and harmony, should be considered. One does not expect such faux-pas from august bodies like the Nobel Prize Committee – Dailytimes
