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Nobel Peace Committee—Resign! Paulos Irgau. 2-2-22
This piece is an attempt to put the recent interview of the Peace Nobel Committee chairwoman with CNN in a broader context when she tried in vain, I must add to defend the committee’s decision to award Abi Ahmed the Peace Prize in 2019.
The Danish Physicist Niels Bohr once said, “…The opposite of truth is falsehood, but the opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth...” By the same token, the opposite of peace is war or violence, but the opposite of profound peace is another profound peace. And the award reflects not a banal peace but a sublime peace, but the tragedy is that Abiy Ahmed not only lacks the moral standing for it but the needed intellect as well.
Now, shifting to the context as in why the standing of the Nobel Peace Committee cannot be seen without the Nordic political philosophy.
A terse historical perspective is in order—a perspective that has thus far defined the national ethos of the Nordic community in general. The “Road to Denmark” was an envy of practically every nation particularly in the early 90s through the 2000s when the “End of History” took the academia by storm and the cacophony of “isms” was prematurely rendered a moot.
The intellectual consensus on the “End of History” was short lived, however, when it was supplanted by the “Clash of Civilizations” instead. That as it may, the accolade and Denmark as the champ of Liberal-Democracy refused to fade away. And it was for a solid and good reason one might rightly argue.
Liberal-Democracy not so much as it is defined in an optical illusion so to speak but when the political institutions as in Transparency, Accountability and Rule of Law check the State power in a calibrated balance. And it was Denmark which achieved the remarkable and yet difficult political feat when the West including the US stagger to keep the said political institutions in a synchronized orbit.
Enter Reformation era: Certainly, Denmark doesn’t own a wand or an elixir but made a choice to accept Calvinism in particular as a religious credo that was far more a political boon than it had spiritual ramifications. In fact, it was the first country to accept Calvinism as a confessional dogma. As much as Calvinism emphasized on salvation by grace and personal relationship with God sans mediator that had been preached by the Catholic church, the “Personal” took a life of its own when it morphed into a personal relationship with the State as well.
The great leap in political consciousness was particularly acute when the clergy set on a robust campaign to eradicate illiteracy so that the people can read the Holy Bible on their own that had been recently translated into Danish language from the esoteric Latin. It was only a matter of time when the people started to be curious and read about the Constitution and other written political discourses that had been hitherto off limits. And the political evolution that had started circa six centuries ago gave Denmark a jump start so to speak to become a model or a prototype or even the “City on the Hill” and hence “The Road to Denmark.”
As much as it was contagious, it had a spill over effect when the political brand made a sway onto the neighboring Nordic nations—Norway and Sweden. And small wonder that, the Nordic nations stood out with in the last several years at the top in Standard of Living, Quality of Living including a narrower gap of Income Redistribution within their respective population.
And that is precisely the reason, The Peace Prize Foundation in Norway is seen with in the said historical backdrop. Not peace a platitude as the absence of war but Peace as a “Categorical Imperative”—a thing-in-itself if I could borrow Emmanuel Kant. When the five-person committee had that in mind—an exalted and sublime Peace, the receiving end was anything but. Aby Ahmed Ali was an anti-thesis to anything the Peace is defined by and a man of a psychological make up in a sharp contrast to the political history Norway is a product of.
It is rather then prudent to enquire the obvious—what exactly went wrong? A hasted decision without rigorous vetting? Or fully aware that Abiy Ahmed was a quack, a charlatan, and a hustler? If the case is the latter, he has proven them right when he sent his soldiers including Eritrean soldiers to Tigray, to rape young girls, to kill young men, fathers, mothers and to loot, desecrate religious centers including churches and mosques and to vandalize hospitals, factories, schools and academic centers.
The rape went on unabated; the killing went on in a full swing, the destruction persisted with a passionate zeal, in the meantime the Nobel Peace Committee opted silence—a silence not to reflect back in remorse but a silence draped in an eerie indifference. Moreover, the tragic stain on the reputation of the Nobel Peace Committee is not only what Abiy Ahmed has unleashed on Tigray, but he is shooting down what has rendered the Nordic nations stellar including Norway. He is shooting down the political institutions in Ethiopia—Transparency, Accountability and Rule of Law and empowering the State to do away with its unregulated and untamed power.
History rightly so has awarded Norway when it refused to collaborate with the Nazis in the late 30s when Norway remained true to its Pacifist philosophy. In here and now, how will Tigreans and posterity remember Norway? This is a serious moral question. Would Abiy Ahmed be emboldened to commit all the atrocities in Tigray if he wasn’t awarded the Peace Prize when he used the cover— “Law and Order Enforcement” campaign for a ruse? Generation of Tigreans will wrestle with the moral question so will a handful of Norwegians—I believe. But there is a chance for generations of Tigreans to remember Norway and the Nobel Peace Committee in good light when the latter owns the moral courage to do the right thing. To resign not now or tomorrow but to resign yesterday!
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