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Harare Bureau
President Robert Mugabe has been named this year’s winner of China’s Confucius Peace Prize.
He beat other contenders for the same prize who included Microsoft founder Bill Gates and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye.
The award flies in the face of opposition functionaries and civil society organisations that always make unsubstantiated claims against the President of alleged human rights abuses.
The chairman of the award Qiao Damo said President Mugabe was chosen for “injecting fresh energy” into the efforts for world peace and African unity.
The prize committee hailed President Mugabe’s leadership, work ethic and his stewardship of the African Union since January this year.
“Ever since Robert Mugabe was sworn in as the President of Zimbabwe in the 1980s, he has worked hard to bring political and economic order to the country and to improve the welfare of the Zimbabwean people by overcoming hardship,” said the committee in a statement.
The Confucius Peace Prize was established in 2010 as an alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize selectively awarded by the West.
This was after the Norwegian Nobel committee angered China by handing its annual prize to the jailed dissident writer Liu Xiaobo.
Previous winners of the Confucius prize include Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Cuban President Fidel Castro who were commended by the committee for speaking out against nuclear warfare.
Qiao said it was important to celebrate President Mugabe’s achievements since independence in 1980.
“If Zimbabwe didn’t have (President) Mugabe, the country would be facing great difficulty — even public security might be in danger,” he said.
“Every country’s economy has its highs and lows. Though its economy is lagging behind (Zimbabwe) is a very stable country and stability is precious in the African continent.”
Qiao said President Mugabe had provided Zimbabweans a better standard of living than citizens of countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It’s much better than Libya too,” he said.
The Confucius prize comes with an award of £51,000 and a gold trophy of Confucius, the ancient Chinese philosopher after whom the prize is named.
In a statement announcing the award, the Confucius Peace Prize committee praised President Mugabe for being “committed to building the country’s political and economic order, for the benefit of the Zimbabwean people”, and for his “strong support of Pan-Africanism and African independence”.
Qiao highlighted the President’s “ability to stabilise Zimbabwe and at the same time promote peace in Africa” as chairperson of the African Union.
“Unrest is quite normal,” he said. “When America was first founded, it was also very chaotic, and Zimbabwe was only founded 30 years ago.”
An award ceremony will be held in December, he said.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the Confucius prize was not affiliated with the government of China.
Qiao said the award was intended to balance the Nobel “from the perspective of Confucian culture”, as the Norwegian peace prize was “too extreme and not consistent with facts”.
“The Nobel Peace Prize is built on the foundations of Western civilisation, but our peace prize is built on the foundation of Eastern civilisation,” he said.
Online Reporter