Magsaysay Award: an honor and a responsibility

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Magsaysay Award, named in memory of the late president who was a beloved and admired exemplar of honest and dedicated public service. To its more than 250 recipients who keep Magsaysay's example alive, the award is both an honor and a responsibility. It is not an end, it is a means to do more.

"A sacred mantle of service and sacrifice" was how Dr. V. Shanta, 2005 awardee for Public Service, put it in a reflection paper she read at the latest annual conference of awardees, held in November 2007 in Chennai, India. She said the award inspired "a new sense of trust" in the Chennai Cancer Institute, which she heads as chair.

Dr. Ahangamage T. Ariyaratne, 1969 Community Leadership awardee, said the RMAF was the first international body to give recognition to his work. He founded the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sri Lanka's largest people's organization, the concept for which draws from Buddhist and Ghandian thinking.

Other awards followed, as more partner agencies provided resources for volunteer work, which helped poor folk tap their potential to rebuild their communities.

Thai community teacher Prateep Unsongtham-Hata (1978, Public Service) was able to set up a foundation for slum dwellers, where her pupils come from. Years later she was elected senator. Having won the award when she was only 26, she opines that it has greater impact on young recipients than on their established counterparts. The sentiment is shared by Benjamin Abadiano (2004, Emergent Leadership), who cited the need for models for the youth, especially in these troubled times fraught with failures of leadership.

Read more...