Nobel Peace Prize brings jubilation and resentment<\/p>\n
By Lela E. Madjiah<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): \"War is the father of all things,\" said the
\nGreek philosopher Heracleitus.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the history of mankind has been blazing with wars. In
\nmodern times there have been more wars than peace to prove
\nHeracleitus' thesis.<\/p>\n
In Promise And Peril In A New World, Robin Wright and Doyle
\nMcManus write: \"In terms of all aspects of warfare, the 20th
\ncentury has marked the bloodiest period in history. Just in its
\nsecond half, the Cold War era witnessed more than 125 wars and
\nalmost 22 million deaths -- an average yearly basis five times
\nmore than the 19th century and eight times more than the 18th.
\nAnd the 1980s marked one of the most violent in decades in the
\nModern Age. In 1987, almost half a million people were killed in
\n27 separate wars worldwide, the highest total since 1700.\"<\/p>\n
Sometimes people even choose war over peace. Indonesians, for
\nexample, chose to fight the Dutch and then the Japanese to become
\nan independent nation rather than remaining under their rule and
\nrelative peace.<\/p>\n
Despite this gloomy reality, people of all nations have
\ncontinued to work for peace. And, although many have failed,
\npeace is still the ultimate dream of most, if not all, people.<\/p>\n
It is for this purpose -- to uphold the dream and recognize
\nhuman efforts at creating and preserving peace -- that Alfred
\nBernhard Nobel set up the Nobel Peace Prize as one of his five
\nprizes.<\/p>\n
Nobel set up a fund and in his will he states that one part of
\nthe interest on his fund should be apportioned \"to the person who
\nshall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between
\nthe nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies
\nand for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.\"<\/p>\n
The question is, has the Nobel Peace Prize really contributed
\nto efforts to bring peace to this world?<\/p>\n
Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan shared the 1976 prize for
\npromoting peace and non-violence in Northern Ireland. They led
\ndemonstrations in which Protestants and Catholics walked together
\nto urge both conflicting parties to return to the old Christian
\nrule: Love thy neighbor. Although there has been progress in the
\npeace talks between Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and the British
\ngovernment, peace looks like a faraway dream for the people of
\nNorthern Ireland.<\/p>\n
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shared the prize in 1994 with
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister
\nShimon Peres for their efforts to create peace in the Middle
\nEast. But peace seems to elude the region, even today.<\/p>\n
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and religious and political
\nleader of the Tibetan people, was the 1989 winner of the prize
\nand Tibetans have yet to become a free people.<\/p>\n
South African Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu was
\nconvinced that the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi
\nof Myanmar in 1991 would help make international pressure on
\nMyanmar's ruling military a sure success.<\/p>\n
\"We know ultimately it's going to succeed,\" said Tutu, who won
\nthe prize in 1984 for his fight against South Africa's apartheid
\nsystem.<\/p>\n
Was Tutu too optimistic?<\/p>\n
Suu Kyi, the eighth woman to receive the award, was unable to
\nreceive the prize in person as she was detained by the military
\nin Myanmar. She was released from her six-year house detention in
\nJuly last year, and there have been high hopes that democracy
\nwill finally arrive in Myanmar. Last Wednesday, however, Suu Kyi
\nwas once again confined to her home by the military, although she
\nwas allowed out on the following day.<\/p>\n
History has shown that the Nobel Peace Prize has not always
\nbeen welcomed by everyone. In some cases, it has caused
\ncontroversies or worsened animosities between opposing parties.<\/p>\n
This is because so much politics is involved. Virtually
\nnothing is left unpoliticized in today's world. The Nobel Peace
\nPrize, too, has not been without political meaning.<\/p>\n
The 1935 prize awarded to German journalist and pacifist Carl
\nvon Ossietzky, for example, was interpreted as an expression of
\nworldwide censure of Nazism. This prompted Hitler to issue a
\ndecree prohibiting Germans from accepting any Nobel prize.<\/p>\n
The political significance of the prize may be due to a shift
\nin the selection of recipients. In the past, it was often nothing
\nmore than a recognition of one's achievements, but recently it
\nhas been awarded to politicians or activists who have yet to make
\naccomplishments.<\/p>\n
This change has often caused controversy. China, for example,
\nwas furious when the committee gave the award to the Dalai Lama.
\nChina denounced the award as interference in its internal
\naffairs.<\/p>\n
Committee chairman Egil Aarvik said that although the award
\nfor the Dalai Lama was not designed as a reprimand of Beijing for
\neither its destructive occupation of Tibet or the Tiananmen
\nSquare massacre, \"we are aware that the Nobel awards often have
\nsuch effects.\"<\/p>\n
Aarvik added: \"If I were a Chinese student leader now, I would
\nsay that the committee has done the right thing.\"<\/p>\n
Another controversy relates to the backgrounds of some of the
\nwinners. Many, for example, could not accept the fact that Henry
\nKissinger shared the prize with Le Duc Tho. Didn't Kissinger have
\na key role in the bombing of enemy forces in Vietnam and help
\nengineer U.S. bombings of Cambodia from 1969 to 1970?<\/p>\n
The 1992 prize that went to Rigoberta Menchu Tum of Guatemala
\nalso plunged the Norwegian Nobel Committee into another
\ncontroversy.<\/p>\n
Previously, the Nobel Peace prize has been awarded only to
\nchampions of human rights who used non-violent methods like Aung
\nSan Suu Kyi. Critics charged that Menchu had taken part in
\nviolent Guatemalan guerrilla actions against the government.
\nThe committee, however, defended its decision, saying that Menchu
\ndid not turn to violence but to political and social work for her
\npeople.<\/p>\n
Francis Sejersted, the head of the committee, said Menchu's
\naward might be controversial in Guatemala, where the military
\nviews Menchu as allied to guerrillas.<\/p>\n
\"...but it will have positive effects on human rights in
\nGuatemala and around the world,\" Sejersted maintained.<\/p>\n
Menchu herself said: \"If I had chosen the armed struggle, I
\nwould be in the mountains now.\"<\/p>\n
The latest controversy stems from the committee's decision to
\ngive the 1996 prize to East Timor's self-exiled pro-independence
\nleader Jose Ramos Horta and East Timor Bishop Carlos Ximenes
\nFilipe Belo.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian government reacted strongly to Horta's prize,
\nsaying they could accept the committee's selection of Bishop Belo
\nbut not that of Horta.<\/p>\n
The latest case adds proof to the fact that the Nobel Peace
\nPrize is a double-edge sword. It brings both jubilation and
\nresentment. Jubilation to the recipients and those they
\nrepresent, and resentment to those who feel they are being
\nreprimanded.<\/p>\n
The Nobel Peace Prize does not always bring immediate peace.
\nOn the contrary, it often shatters the peace of mind of both
\ngovernments and individuals who become the indirect target of the
\nNorwegian Nobel Peace Committee's rebuke and secretive work.<\/p>\n
Despite its failure to bring ultimate peace to many feuding
\nparties, the peace prize helps remind the world of humanity's
\ngreatest challenge: To bring peace to this world and to maintain
\nit for the sake of all.<\/p>",
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