Nobel panel moves in mysterious ways

The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet " which comprises the Tunisian Employers Union, the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the National Bar Association " won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Picture: Fethi Belaid

The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet " which comprises the Tunisian Employers Union, the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the National Bar Association " won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Picture: Fethi Belaid

Published Oct 13, 2015

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The award is always a surprise, whether pre-emptive or for work well done, says Peter Fabricius.

Johannesburg - Did the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet – not a jazz band, by the way – wonder if they were being pranked when the Nobel Committee called them on Friday to tell them they had been awarded this year’s peace prize?

Very few punters had put money on them to win the coveted prize.

The smart money was on much bigger names, such as Pope Francis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

So the quartet probably weren’t expecting that call – like quite a few other winners of the Nobel prizes. The problem is that the Nobel committees are so secretive. There are no official nominations, no public shortlist of candidates and the Nobel officials only phone the recipient on the day the winner is announced.

The Wall Street Journal recounts how University of Massachusetts Medical School biologist Dr Craig Mello got the call at 4.30am (because of the time difference between Sweden and the US) one day in 2006.

His wife told him not to answer because she thought it was a prank. Then the phone rang again and this time Mello picked up. “I’m glad they didn’t just move down the list,” he said.

Jokes aside, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet – which comprises the Tunisian Employers Union, the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the National Bar Association – are worthy winners because they made a major contribution towards ensuring that Tunisia made a successful transition – the only one so far – in the Arab Spring.

It was because of that wider context in North Africa and the Middle East – so much at the heart of global turmoil today – that the Nobel Committee chose the quartet, not only as “an encouragement to the Tunisian people” and “an example to be followed by other countries”.

It had helped steer the country towards democracy after the 2011 Jasmine Revolution when it was “on the brink of civil war”. The quartet helped to broker a deal between the secularists and the Islamist-led government in 2013.

It intervened at an incendiary moment when the assassination of two secular politicians by Islamist extremists threatened to scupper negotiations towards a democratic transition.

It played a decisive role in effecting a compromise between the secularists and Islamists, which put the constitutional negotiations back on track and led to elections. The secularists and Islamists now serve together in a coalition government.

This is in sharp contrast to all the other Arab Spring countries, where they have been killing each other in ever-larger numbers in continuing civil wars.

Or where, as in Egypt, the popular revolution has simply been reversed and the prior authoritarian militaristic government has been reinstated.

The quartet is not the only surprising winner resulting from the Nobel Committee’s interest in being an agent of history – in using the prize not only as a reward for past achievements but as an incentive for future ones.

The award of the 2009 prize to US President Barack Obama arguably contained more of the latter than the former motivation. Obama himself – like his countryman Mello – also seemed surprised to get the call from the committee.

After all, he had just taken office, though on the promise of pulling the US out of his predecessor’s wars. Has he delivered on the promise which the Nobel Committee pre-emptively rewarded? Perhaps. He has withdrawn US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan – and buried the hatchet with Cuba – though the US is back at war with Islamic State. That, unfortunately, probably just goes with the job.

Back in 1993, the committee similarly gave the prize jointly to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, who had already walked a long road together – but not all the way – towards a historic reconciliation of the crisis here.

Who could say for sure that the prize didn’t help to push them the extra yard across the finishing line?

The Star

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