The Nobel Peace Prize and Its Significance
The Nobel Peace Prize Award is an honourable global program that was initiated by Alfred Nobel and acts from March 1901. As the industrialist, innovator and manufacturer of armaments, Nobel had a significant rationale behind the award with reference to fields such as Physiology, Chemistry, Medicine and Literature. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee was located in Norway and it is composed of members chosen by the Norwegian parliament (Nobel Prize, 2011).
Criteria for Nomination
The nominees the prize must have contributed significantly to humanity in the field of innovation or peacekeeping among warring parties. The humanitarian act of alleviating other people’s plight could suffice as to one becoming a candidate for the selection process. The decision to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo in absentia, while he was in incarceration in China, was quite conflicting due to the bilateral relations that existed between the proponents and opponents of the move. The reflective essay will strive to investigate the function of the 2010 Nobel Prize award as a means of mediation discourse and the resultant impact to the international community.
The Visionary Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo is depicted as a revolutionary visionary who manifested the ideas of a reformed China, where every individual mattered in the issues of national interest. The kind of transformative activities that he engaged himself in earned him tremendous recognition. The love for education enabled him to study in various institutions both locally and in the diaspora. The deep interest in the various cultures and systems during his studies gave him the chance to develop rational arguments that could foster change to his compatriots. Therefore, the need to trigger a change in his homeland China took him back. The establishment of the “Charter 08” was an evidence conviction to see changes in the governmental system that would enable the country to be on the same level with other developed nations such as the US. The Chief Speaker in the Nobel Prize Award convention in 2010 alluded to the black activist movement, which was pioneered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was after the signing of the Civil Rights encapsulating the Black American population that the US skyrocketed in the various facets of economic and scientific development. In this regard, the Chinese economy is expected to grow at an even higher pace when the citizens will be granted the freedom to express and associate with one another in an open atmosphere (Link, 2009). By so doing, the various individuals with diverse capabilities could pool their efforts and enhance innovation.
The Chinese Government's Perspective
At some point, the Chinese government may seem justified to undertake the desperate measures considering external unbalanced conditions in order to ensure stability and progress. The fact that the international media is dominated by the Western views, validates the act of the local government to censor or literally block the people from subscribing to such material. Otherwise, anarchy and pollution from the revolutionary feed from such media will derail progress and then undo the fabric of the society that has kept the Chinese fraternity intact for ages (Global Times, 2010). The uniformity in thought and action among the Chinese is perceived to have translated to the exemplary economic milestones that are reflected in the national performance in the global arena.
The Totalitarian Regime and its Implications
However, the fact that the Chinese government could not allow the Nobel Laureate to attend the auspicious occasion, confirmed the nature of the totalitarian regime that was in power. The decision of the award committee members to address empty seats allocated for this laureate and his relatives depicted the determination to address the humanitarian crisis in China. The element of gagging the media and the oppression of the people who are fighting to foster good and open governance, as shown by the Liu Xiaobo’s move, represents a retrogressive system, which is stuck in the past (Sautman and Hairong, 2010). Modernization that is crucial to development in the contemporary world cannot be manifested in such a debilitating environment.
Conclusion
The 2010 Noble Peace Prize Award process, which chose Liu Xiaobo, who was considered a criminal in his homeland, was a litmus test to China and to the committee in charge of the awards. The program served a good purpose in an attempt to air the grievance of the Chinese people by bringing their plight to the public limelight. The focus atrocities and the progress of the government of China will enable the stakeholders in the system to revisit the policies that will help strike a balance between governance and society.
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References
Global Times, 2010. Oslo puts on a farce against China. [Online] Available at: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/600648.shtml [Accessed 22 Aug. 2018].
Link, P., 2009. China’s Charter 08. [Online]. Available at: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/01/15/chinas-charter-08/ [Accessed 22 Aug. 2018].
Nobel Prize, 2011. Nobel Peace Prize 2010 Presentation Speech. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCKq_8ECvs [Accessed 22 Aug. 2018].
Sautman, B. and Hairong, Y., 2010. Do supporters of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo really know what he stands for? [Online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/15/nobel-winner-liu-xiaobo-chinese-dissident [Accessed 22 Aug. 2018].
