[3068] Editorial: The empty seat at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony

3068 Edition
December 13~19, 2010
Editorial

Editorial: The empty seat at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony

Translated by Lydia Ma

This year’s December 10 will be remembered as the 2nd time in 75 years where neither the Nobel Laureate nor a member of his family showed up at the award ceremony to pick up the prestigious prize.

To honor 2010’s Laureate, Liu Xiaobo, Thorbjoern Jagland, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, placed the golden diploma, medal, and document on Liu’s empty seat, before proceeding with his speech.

Jagland emphasized the Nobel Peace Prize should serve as a constant reminder that the freedoms we enjoy on a daily basis today were fought and bought with the sacrifice of many people – some even risking their own lives.

Jagland said that Liu had told his wife prior this ceremony that his prize would be dedicated to all those who lost their lives in the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

In related news, about one month before this ceremony, on the other side of the hemisphere, a heroine fighting a cause similar to Liu’s in her own country was released from house arrest. Her name? Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi made headlines shortly after her release with a public statement holding no grudges against those who detained her, instead, she urged her supporters to continue fighting for freedom of speech and human rights in her country.

For both Liu and Suu Kyi, they thought it was important to unmask their government’s masquerade of peace and goodwill.

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu once again unearthed memories of the Tiananmen Massacre and the student movements that took place in China at the time. The difference this time is that these heroes are now being viewed in a positive light for their contributions to Chinese democracy.

Taiwan’s own version of the “Tiananmen Square Massacre” took place on April 6, 1949, but few people know about it. At the time, police officers were dispatched to surround National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University student dormitories to apprehend students involved in democracy movements. More than 100 students were arrested and imprisoned that night. Of these students, 7 were eventually executed at gunpoint.

Though this horror occurred half a century ago during Taiwan’s “White Terror” days, it wasn’t until the year 2000 that the Ministry of Education issued a formal apology to the victims’ families.

This year’s empty seat at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony shames authoritarian regimes and inspires the weak to take heart and rest assured that though justice may tarry, it WILL come someday – as proven by this empty seat.

This Christmas season, we find a similar analogy of hope in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 2 introduces us to a character named Simeon. He was a good man and “a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died.” (The Message, Luke 2:25-26). And as the story goes, God didn’t disappoint him – Simeon eventually got to see the Savior with his own eyes.

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