Nobel Peace Prize 2009

By Hakim Joe

Question: “Who won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize?”

Answer: “US President Barack Obama”.

Yep, you read right. On the 9th October, Nobel committee Chairman Thorbjørn Jagland announced that the 9-months-in-office US President, Barack Obama is the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. 

Before we get to what exactly Obama did to deserve the Nobel Prize, let us look at who he beat to get his hands on the US$1.4 million (cash) and the medal. 

First, there is the 52-year old Dr Sima Samar, the founder of the 20-year old Shuhada Organization, a charity foundation that establishes and manages hospitals, schools and health clinics for girls and women all over Afghanistan and Pakistan. So what is so special about this woman? I guess there is nothing extraordinary about her since she was beaten to the Nobel Prize award by President Obama, but let us review what she did to gain nomination.  

Dr. Sima Samar graduated from Kabul University (1982) during the Soviet invasion. She was in fact the first Hazara woman to be a doctor of medicine. She was then forced to flee Kabul a few months later as the Soviet soldiers were not exactly the epitome of what a gentleman should be. In the next two years, she worked tirelessly as a doctor in her hometown Jaghoori against Taliban laws (as these militiamen have criminalised the delivery of reproductive health services to women and girls). In 1984, the communist regime arrested her husband but she managed to once again flee to Pakistan. Here she worked as a doctor at the refugee branch of the Mission Hospital. In 1989, she established the non-profitable Shuhada Organization – a foundation dedicated to the means of providing health care to Afghan women and girls, and training of medical staff. Her husband was never heard from again after his arrest. 

Dr. Sima Samar is also the Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Her numerous international awards include the 100-Heroines Award (1998), the John Humphrey Freedom Award (2001), the Paul Grunninger Human Rights Award (2001), the International Human Rights Award (2002), the Freedom Award (2002), the Perdita Huston Human Rights Award (2003), the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award (2008) and many others. 

Now we come to the second losing candidate; 54-year old Dr. Denis Mukwege from Congo, a gynaecologist specializing in the treatment of women who have been gang raped by the Congolese militia during Congo’s 12-year war. He has been credited with treating over 21,000 such rape victims, sometimes performing up to 10 surgeries a day during his 18-hour working days. Dr. Mukwege is also credited as the world’s leading expert on how to repair the internal physical damage caused by gang rape. His awards include the Olof Palme Prize (2008) for outstanding achievement, African of the Year (2008) and the UN Human Rights prize (2008). 

The third nominee that lost to Obama is “favourite” Chinese activist Hu Jia, the champion of the Falun Gong minority in PRC, the director of June Fourth Heritage & Culture Association and a leader in the Chinese democracy movement. He was arrested in February 2006 and was kept under house arrest until December 2007 when he was rearrested again. Hu Jia is currently being incarcerated in a Chinese jail for attempting to publicize the plight of these people and for participating in a European parliamentary hearing in Brussels in November 2007 about human rights in China (using a web cam). He won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom in 2008. 

Altogether there were a record-breaking 205 nominees (including 33 organizations) which included France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, Chinese dissident Wei Jing Sheng, Dr. Sima Samar, Dr. Denis Mukwege, Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia and of course President Barack Obama. 

So what are Obama’s contributions that he was singly targeted as the 2009 Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and to join the prestigious ranks of former winners like Doctors without Borders, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mother Teresa, Amnesty International, Andrei Sakharov and Martin Luther King Junior? 

Well, he did say that he will decrease the troop levels in Afghanistan (US troops increased to 17,000) and he also did say that he will close down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (which is still in existence). He also promised that US will withdraw its troops from Iraq (US did remove their troops from Baghdad but not elsewhere in Iraq) and he retained Ben Bernanke as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (whose monetary policies were exactly the correct ingredients to cause the US Economic Meltdown and hence the Global Economic Meltdown). 

To be fair, even Obama was somehow shocked to have received the Nobel Peace Prize that he has embarrassingly pledged to donate the US$1.4 million to charity. Which charity and when he is going to do the donation was never mentioned (but it is early days yet). I hope he donates it to my favourite charity – my bank account. US$1.4 million equates RM7,065,299.59 (today’s rates). 

Additionally, the Nobel Prize was originally created to honour the person or organisation who has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Now I understand why Dr. Sima Samar and Dr. Denis Mukwege did not win. They were not generals or national leaders and did not command armies. Come to think of it, why did Mother Theresa win in 1979? Did she contribute to reducing standing armies in wars or in armed conflicts? Or Aung San Suu Kyi (fraternity between nations?) and Doctors without Borders (promotion of peace congresses?) for that matter. 

BTW, the Nobel Peace Prize nominees had once included Adolph Hitler (withdrawn after a couple of days), Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini. 

The 2009 Nobel Committee consists of Thorbjørn Jagland (leader), Geir Lundestad (secretary), Sissel Rønbeck, Kaci Kullmann Five, Agot Valle and Inger-Marie Ytterhorn.