By Anas Nilambur,
On 8th October 2010, the world woke up with awe inspiring news about the Nobel Peace Prize of the year. The award went to a dissident of China, Liu Xiaobo. Majority of the human right activists and a number of political activists all over the world watched this news to the heart content, since this year’s prize at least was grabbed neither by any established political icon nor by any imperial leader as it happened many times in the past.
One may pose many questions with the curiosity to know the real drive behind such an unprecedented decision to give away the coveted prize to an Asian activist. Answering these questions is not a complicated one, rather simple and obvious that Mr. Liu Xiaobo has been fighting against the communist China! He is none but a political prisoner being accused of inciting subversion of state power, though similar incidents are very common in many countries. But this subversion of ‘communist’ power has been termed by the academy as ‘nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China’.
The harsh reality about China cannot be forgotten here, where the human rights are more in theory than in practice, as it was proved by the imprisonment of Mr. Liu. Furthermore, the latest news says that the iron walls of Chinese political system has not yet let the happy news of the award reach the laureate, and his wife has reportedly been put under house arrest .
Despite these facts, can anyone justify the use of the most popular award as a political weapon against a country or some individuals? But ironically, it has been justified so far! Though Mahatma Gandhi is respected and remembered all over the world only for his non-violent, peace movements, he was denied the Nobel Prize apparently because of his anti European stance. The renowned Brazilian novelist, George Amodove’s popularity did not reach the prize jury due to his communist views. The Nobel Prize never knocked at the bars of Muamia Abu Jamal, who led protest against racism in America, being incarcerated by the ‘peace makers of the world’ since 1981, for committing the similar ‘crime’ done by Mr. Liu Xiaobo. Muamia’s struggles are not termed as ‘non-violent for the human rights’ by the academy, just as they don’t do in the case of many human rights movements all over the world, such as Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq etc.
On the other hand president Barak Obama was awarded for his one-year-old struggle for peace!, Bishop Carlose Bailo for his fight against Muslim Indonesia. America’s blue eyed boys, Shimon Pares, Yitzahak Rabin of Israel, notorious for waging war against innocent unarmed Palestinians, also enjoyed the noble Nobel prize. To balance this favoritism in the broad light, Yasir Arafat was also unsurprisingly chosen to share its taste with the other two, in the name of the most celebrated Oslo Accord, another treachery towards Palestine, which found its way to obituary the very next year!
In short, if anyone thinks that the colour, region, language, politics and even, to an extent, religion play a major role in the criterion of awarding the Nobel Prize, can he be blamed?
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