The 1959 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

RESPONSE of Edward Michael Law Yone

My citation, which you have heard, is extremely complimentary, but honesty compels me to say that I feel I do not deserve it. We in this profession of journalism, which is among the lowest paid in Asia, generally enter with a sense of public duty or some such high ideal. But very soon in our career we tend to become dissatisfied, disgruntled and dispirited. The men and institutions in which we place our trust—even the whole community—sometimes desert their high principles, so that with the disclosure of every broken pledge, of every act of folly, madness or sheer criminality on their part, we are apt to become hard and cynical to the point where we at times wonder whether there is any use in going on.

Fortunately for our sanity, there appears, at infrequent intervals, out of the mass of ineptitude, neglect and corruption, a new personality who by his example and accomplishments reveals a greatness of spirit. In our day and age, against the backdrop of maharajas, sultans, prime ministers, kings and emperors, fading into ignorant oblivion—against the backdrop of these failures—there appears clear and life-sized a man whose private life bears close scrutiny and whose public actions give encouragement and inspiration—a man who leaves footprints on the sands of time.

Such a man was Ramon Magsaysay, your late President. If he could be with us today, I am sure he would be pleased to find that a country called Burma, not too different from his own in climate and geography, in leadership and in objectives, has been cited in not one but two of this year's Awards. For this signal honor, I am deeply grateful.