Born in British Singapore to Javanese parents, ABDUL SAMAD ISMAIL completed his Senior Cambridge Certificate in the final year of peace before World War II. Spurning the more conventional careers for English-educated Malays, he became a cub reporter at the newly launched Malay daily, Utusan Melayu. Newspaper work suited the restless, brilliant youth and it became his life-long addiction.

Rising during the war years to assistant editor of Utusan Melayu, SAMAD at twenty-one became editor of the Japanese-sponsored Berita Malai. The returning British jailed him briefly after the war, but SAMAD soon assumed effective editorial leadership of the revived Utusan Melayu. In his hands the newspaper covered sympathetically the agitations of radical labor and student movements and became an instrument in the independence struggle.

SAMAD steeped himself in anti-colonial politics. He joined left-wing Malay nationalists in pressing for a decolonization plan in which the interests of Malays would be paramount and met regularly with anti-colonial activists of all races, urging them to stand with the most oppressed social classes, especially poor Malays. Secretly he arranged material support for Indonesian revolutionaries at war with the Dutch. SAMAD’s ties to leftist leaders and organizations led the British to arrest him a second time in 1951. Never tried, he was released in 1953 to popular acclaim; he rejoined the Utusan Melayu and, with Lee Kuan Yew, founded Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP).

From his earliest days as editor SAMAD religiously printed the works of Malay poets and short story writers. He now used his influence to support the “fifties generation” of Malay writers by publishing their literary works in Utusan Melayu. Passionately he cautioned Malays not to abandon their own language for English, assuring them that Malay “will gain in richness, utility, and beauty together with the emancipation and growth of Malayan society.”

In 1959, having broken with both Utusan Melayu and Lee Kuan Yew, SAMAD moved to Kuala Lurnpur. As editor of Berita Harian and, eventually, as managing editor of the New Straits Times Group, he moved print journalism into the mainstream of Malaysian political life. He developed a nationwide team of correspondents based in rural areas and, as editor and mentor, shaped the thinking and values of Malaysia’s rising writers and journalists. His own incisive articles in Malay and English dissected the country’s complex electoral processes and drew attention to embarrassing inequities in the national society. He promoted standardization of the national language and the creation of a national university. SAMAD also explored the social complexities of Malaysia’s fast-evolving multi-ethnic society in a series of novels, beginning in 1967.

Jailed again in 1976 under Malaysia’s Internal Security Act, SAMAD was released in 1981 and rejoined the New Straits Times Group as editorial adviser. Retired in 1988, he was knighted by Malaysia’s king in 1992. Today he teaches young writers and continues to write actively himself. He warms up-and-coming reporters about the blandishments of power and money and reminds them of their “moral obligation to the nation as citizens.”

A notorious workaholic and jokester, seventy-year-old SAMAD is also famous for his astute political insights and powerful mind. He is “a thinker for his people,” as one admirer puts it. Personally, his friends say, he is something of an enigma. SAMAD admits, “Only my Creator knows me well.”

In electing ABDUL SAMAD ISMAIL to receive the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, the board of trustees recognizes his applying his intellect and journalistic skills to champion national independence, cultural revival, and democratic nation-building in Malaysia.

I stand before this distinguished gathering with a deep sense of both pride and humility in the shadow of the great man in whose memory this award was created.

I am proud to be chosen for the Ramon Magsaysay Award and, at the same time, humbled by the achievements of your third president in pursuit of the ideals to which he dedicated his life. I only hope that I am not too unworthy a recipient of this prestigious prize.

I am grateful indeed to the board of trustees for this award. You do my country great honor and me. You honor journalists who, in the arduous years of our independence struggle, not only wrote the first draft of history, but also influenced its course. It is on behalf of these journalists of bygone years and the generations that succeeded them in our profession that I accept this award.

Very few of my former colleagues who selflessly served the cause of our country have survived to receive the recognition they so richly deserve. I count myself fortunate to have gone through those difficult decades, although not, I must admit, without retaining some scars. But the rewards have been more than gratifying. Malaysia today stands tall in the community of nations, proud and confident as it keeps its tryst with destiny.

A new generation of Malaysian journalists has emerged, schooled in the culture of nation building that transcends ethnic, religious, and cultural barriers. They seek inspiration from the rich traditions of our diverse society to face the challenges of a new era as regional and global citizens.

Ties of history that make vicissitudes in our relationship only transient and passing episodes irrevocably bind Malaysia and the Philippines. You have fought courageously against foreign and native oppressors in glorious battles that have become an indelible part of the region’s history. Jose Rizal is as much our hero as he is yours. In him we share a common heritage.

Some people have started to talk of a Malay diaspora, not unlike the earlier diaspora of the Chinese and Indians worldwide, though not quite on such a large scale. We may look at it as the stirring of a people, stretching from our Nusantara to South Africa and Suriman, seeking not territorial or political hegemony, but trading opportunities and markets in a world undergoing dramatic change and becoming increasingly smaller.

Finally, I would like on this auspicious occasion, which by a happy coincidence falls on the thirty-seventh anniversary of my country’s independence, to extend fraternal greetings to your people, especially media practitioners, on behalf of Malaysian journalists.

Archives are the mines of a nation’s history. Without their rich lode of raw materials, the past cannot be investigated with rigor or reconstructed accurately and History gives way to Myth. Hence, in 1957, the leaders of newly independent Malaya set up a Public Records Office to salvage and preserve the decaying stores of documents they had inherited from the British. This later became Malaysia’s National Archives. As a young graduate from the University of Malaya, DATO’ ZAKIAH HANUM binti ABDUL HAMID joined its tiny staff in 1961. Advancing as the Archives grew, she learned every critical process firsthand and played an important role in the professionalization of the system. In 1977 she became chief.

As director general, ZAKIAH presides over Malaysia’s primary repository of historical materials in the capital and a network of branches countrywide. In these archives a hoard of official documents, letters, reports, and private papers in nearly a dozen languages rests alongside maps, drawings, newspapers, sound recordings, photographs, and films. The oldest are baptismal registers from the 1640s, the newest, essential current files of government departments shipped regularly to the Archives — modern, ultrafireproof facilities for safekeeping. As ZAKIAH adds constantly to the collection, preservation specialists save older items from insects, mold, and corrosive chemicals and copy the most fragile items on film. Others on her versatile staff of more than four hundred evaluate, catalog, and store the materials so that they will be accessible to government and the public. Some two thousand researchers now use the National Archives every year.

With the farsighted backing of her government, ZAKIAH has made Malaysia’s National Archives the most professional and technically advanced in all Southeast Asia. Through it, systematic and modern records-management systems are being introduced to Malaysia’s bureaucracy. ZAKIAH has placed Malaysia at the forefront of regional cooperation as well. Apprentice archivists from throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific come to Malaysia for training.

“We Malaysians seem to have so little sense of the past,” says ZAKIAH. She is using the Archives to change this. ZAKIAH has expanded its oral history collection, for example, and sponsors lecture series in which prominent figures relate their experiences for posterity. Using unique archival materials, she has mounted special exhibitions and set up permanent memorials to commemorate great events and figures in Malaysian history. In 1980 she initiated a daily television program called “Today in History,” and later introduced a national “History Quiz.” 

Outside the office, ZAKIAH writes short stories, television scripts, and plays and has authored four books on Malay culture and tradition for schoolchildren. Since 1972 she has been president of the Muslim Women’s Action Society, or Pertiwi, which provides kindergartens, scholarships, and other benefits for needy Malaysian youngsters. And she is a leader in seeking innovative ways to aid her country’s efforts against drug abuse.

Armed with humor and equanimity, fifty-two-year-old ZAKIAH shifts from her private life as wife and mother of three to her multifarious public one with apparent ease. Moving confidently from one task to the next, she is happy in her work, conscious of its contribution to making Malaysia, as she puts it, “a knowledgeable society.”

In electing DATO’ ZAKIAH HANUM BINTI ABDUL HAMID to receive the 1989 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes her showing Malaysians how an expertly run archive system can illuminate their country’s past and play a vital role in its present.

I bring greetings to you from the people of my nation. I thank you for the privilege accorded me to visit your wonderful country, and for all the hospitalities you have extended to me. I am deeply moved with a sense of gratitude to the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for the great honor conferred upon me, and I am honored as you honor my country today on its Day of Independence.

In accepting the award, my thoughts are of my country, my family, my friends, and those with whom I share the responsibilities of government service. This honor is not only for me but for all the people of Malaysia. For this recognition I am thankful to God and to all who have helped me and made this honor possible.

I am happy that the award links me, however remotely, with the name of a great soul, known to the world for his ideals, integrity, and devotion to service. Thus I am proud to receive the award in the name of Ramon Magsaysay — the illustrious son of the Philippines whom the world pauses to remember on his eighty-second birth anniversary today. For me, it is a moment of humility, a moment of awareness that it is the service that counts and not the individual who is its instrument. Therefore the award will always remind me of how much still remains to be done. It will inspire me to strive for excellence in my calling and to serve the best interests of my fellow citizens.

The award is also an honor that I shall not forget to share with the women of my country, since I am the first Malaysian woman to receive it. Also, I can honestly imagine no greater recognition for the archival institution that I represent. It will be a source of continuing inspiration to my colleagues at the National Archives of Malaysia, as well as to my counterparts in archival institutions elsewhere in Asia. All will be gratified to note that the unglamorous and unobtrusive work of the archivist does not go unacknowledged.

There were days when archives called to mind the image of a dusty storehouse of unused papers and faded documents. This impression, fortunately, is fast changing as the world moves from industrial to informational societies and as the archivist steps into society to become involved with the forces of change and community development. It is my earnest hope that archivists will continue to move in this direction without the slightest thought of reward or recognition. It is a moral responsibility, and one that also adds meaning to one’s role as a public servant.

As enjoined by the Holy Koran, devout Muslims everywhere aspire to fulfill Islam’s Fifth Pillar (one of five obligatory duties), the pilgrimage to Mecca. Required only of those who can afford it, the haj has for centuries inspired believers to enterprise, thrift and self-imposed hardship to accumulate wealth sufficient for the journey. For Muslims in distant Southeast Asia, the pilgrimage was costly, arduous and fraught with hazard. Few could undertake it. 

Since its establishment as an independent state Malaysia has striven to bring the pilgrimage within the means of more of its Muslim citizens, and to make their trip to Mecca orderly and safe. The Pilgrimage Management and Fund Board, Tabung Haji, has now largely achieved this goal under the creative leadership of Dato’ HAJI HANAFIAH BIN HAJI AHMAD. HANAFIAH entered the Civil Service from the University of Malaya and was posted in 1963 to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. Encountering Malaysian pilgrims scrambling for food and accommodations amidst strange surroundings, he energetically undertook to help them. These efforts prompted Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak to choose HANAFIAH as Tabung Haji‘s Deputy Director General in 1974. Within three years he was made Director General. 

Aware that many pilgrims are rural folk without experience in foreign travel, HANAFIAH has expanded Tabung Haji‘s activities to make it an effective “people’s organization.” Formerly discouraged by ignorance and bureaucratic hurdles, pilgrims now seek assistance from the 69 branch offices of Tabung Haji throughout the country which coordinate the issuing of passports, visas and health documents, and which brief the pilgrims thoroughly about each stage of their prospective journey. Today’s pilgrim is whisked from Malaysia directly to Jiddah aboard jets chartered by Tabung Haji from the national airline, staffed with personnel trained to attend to their needs. From Jiddah buses carry them to prearranged quarters around Mecca. Throughout the holy rituals they are cared for by Tabung Haji staff members who provide information, banking facilities and familiar Malaysian foods, and who organize mobile clinics and a hospital to keep illness and mortality to a minimum. Today the vast majority of Malaysia’s pilgrims — nearly 25,000 annually — avail themselves of Tabung Haji‘s comprehensive services. 

Financing their pilgrimage has been a chronic problem for most Muslims; savings for this event formerly might be hidden away beneath the house floor in earthen jars or secreted in a bamboo rafter. But today, due to public confidence instilled by HANAFIAH, over 1,000,000 Malaysians deposit their savings with Tabung Haji, which keeps individual computerized accounts. This growing fund is astutely invested in oil palm plantations, rubber estates, electronics firms, real estate and other profitable projects. Besides earning an approximate eight percent dividend for its investors — all in strict keeping with Islamic precepts — Tabung Haji serves a secondary purpose, as a source of capital for spurring Malaysia’s progress. 

Born 49 years ago in Kedah, HANAFIAH personifies a new generation of Malaysian civil servants who have been trained at home and abroad since independence. Under his devoted and upright leadership Tabung Haji‘s 900-member professional staff is providing facilities whereby Muslims may both carry out the precepts of Islam (which is Malaysia’s official religion), and enhance their own prosperity. The new 38-story office tower which houses the organization’s national headquarters — a gleaming architectural wonder on the skyline of Kuala Lumpur — is a dramatic symbol of Tabung Haji‘s high national profile and its importance to Malaysia today. 

In electing Dato’ HAJI HANAFIAH BIN HAJI AHMAD to receive the 1987 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his enabling tens of thousands of devout Malaysian Muslims to accumulate savings and safely and economically make a cherished pilgrimage to Mecca.

I would like first of all to thank the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for erecting me as the 1987 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Government Service. 

The late Ramon Magsaysay is regarded as a defender of the people, a president dedicated to eliminating injustice and exploitation, one who had a vision for a better future for the common man. He cared for all and wanted to ensure that the people were not squeezed or cheated by those with greater power, influence or wealth. 

One of the main aims of the Malaysian Pilgrims Management and Fund Board (Tabung Haji) is to prevent the exploitation of ordinary pilgrims by middlemen — a situation which was rife during the colonial period. Since formation, Tabung Haji has been able to eliminate the middleman at all levels, help make the pilgrimage more orderly and provide better facilities for about 25,000 pilgrims each year. 

Before the establishment of Tabung Haji, Muslims in Malaysia, 70 percent of whom live in the rural areas and make up the poorest section of the population, used to save for the haj by keeping their money in pillows, under the bed, in cupboards or in jars buried in the ground. These traditional methods of saving — designed to avoid having their money tainted by interest which is forbidden by Islam — were not only detrimental to the rural economy but also to national economic growth. 

The government formulated a scheme to invest money put aside for the haj in business activities which are permitted by Islam. From 1,281 depositors with approximately US$20,000 worth of deposits in 1963, Tabung Haji today has over 1,000,000 depositors and assets worth some US$500,000,000. 

Tabung Haji‘s economic activities in oil palm and cocoa plantations, housing and industrial concerns bring benefit not only to the depositors who receive a yearly share of the profits, but also to the economy of the country, creating thousands of jobs for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The Tabung Haji is not only an institution serving the needs of Muslims but the population at large. 

An important lesson learned from the success of Tabung Haji is the necessity of political support and the avoidance of political interference. The Malaysian government’s support for Tabung Haji has been an essential ingredient in its success. But even more important has been its non-interference in the professional and business decisions of the board. There is no dearth of brilliant economists and planners in Asia, but lack of political support, as well as the disease of political interference, corruption and nepotism, have meant that the plans of many organizations have not achieved their target. 

Members of Tabung Haji‘s staff have developed an attitude of genuine respect for the dignity and importance of all who deal with the organization. They are always available to the people. The organization has been able to develop this spirit of service and dedication among its staff as we believe that public service is a trust. Of ricers of Tabung Haji regard themselves as servants of the people who have put their trust in the organization. They have eliminated bureaucratic hurdles and difficulties facing the people and made its services easily accessible to all, with minimum difficulty and cost. 

To me this Award is not only an acknowledgment of the innovative and pioneering role of Tabung Haji in serving the needs of Malaysian Muslims — and of Muslim minorities in other countries in the Pacific region — in performing their religious obligations, but also of its important role in contributing to the economic and social development of Malaysia. The latter benefits both Muslims and non-Muslims. 

I am indeed honored to serve as chief executive of this organization with its dedicated and loyal staff and, as a Malay, I am proud to accept this Award, which is dedicated to the ideals of one of the Malay world’s illustrious sons, the late President Magsaysay.

Any government whose funds are chronically inadequate must ensure their appropriate and efficient use. Waste and corruption are a curse that cripples most newly independent countries, and ineffective fiscal accountability is an international problem. Yet the task of holding government departments accountable often devolves upon an auditor, whose office is a bureaucratic backwater with limited mandate, and whose reports are ignored. 

Such was the situation in Malaysia until May 1976 when TAN SRI AHMAD NOORDIN, already extended beyond normal retirement as Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, became Auditor- General. His was a surprise appointment: he lacked a university degree and was the first to be selected from outside the Audit Department. 

NOORDIN was born February 18,1921, in a small kampong (village) in the northeastern state of Kelantan, into a traditional Islamic family. His education began in a rural Malay school and continued in a government English school until halted by Japanese occupation of the peninsula in 1941. After World War II, while supporting a family as a clerk in the Price Control Office, he studied nights and weekends. In 1947 he passed the Cambridge School Certificate Examination which enabled him to join the Kelantan State Civil Service. Eight years later, just before Malaysia became independent from Britain, he entered the Federal Civil Service and earned distinction in successive posts for his searching mind, capacity for innovation, integrity and hard work. 

With his appointment as Auditor-General nine years ago, NOORDIN began to make an indelible mark on government. The law requiring a report on the accuracy of state and federal accounts he found too narrow. Declaring “my clarion call is to propagate the concept of public accountability,” he persuaded parliament to amend the Audit Act of 1957, thus enabling his office to ascertain whether funds were actually used as appropriated and managed efficiently. 

Concentrating upon performance auditing, NOORDIN shattered the complacency of bureaucrats and politicians. His first audit in 1977 uncovered abuses ranging from procurement of much overpriced noodles by the army, to discrepancies in Ministry of Education grants totaling nearly US$35 million. But the role of an auditor, he believes, is to “analyze the weaknesses which give rise to such faults, and secure cooperation of the heads of the audited organizations to rectify them and to strengthen their internal controls in order to prevent recurrence.” 

In 1982 Malaysia was rocked by a scandal involving almost US$1 billion in bad loans by the Hong Kong subsidiary of the state-owned Bank Bumiputra. Public doubt of the government’s ability to investigate its own financial institution was met by appointment of a three-member special committee of inquiry with NOORDIN as chairman. Its blunt, extensively documented findings made NOORDIN and his colleagues folk heroes and restored faith in the national banking system. 

NOORDIN is guided by deep moral convictions that began with his rural village family life and religious training. He believes that, depending upon their talents, all human beings have something to contribute to society, first by doing their own work well. He states that one becomes a sinner against society by giving in to pressure by influential figures, rather than protecting the rights of the powerless. “A career in public service,” he says, “should be viewed as more than earning a living. A public servant must recognize social injustice, and work towards reducing it with courage and determination.”

Modest in manner and lifestyle, NOORDIN has shown that a devoted civil servant, through his strength of character and excellence of performance, can restore confidence in government. In the process he has lent added impetus to Malaysia’s exceptionally rapid economic progress. 

In electing TAN SRI AHMAD NOORDIN BIN HAJI ZAKARIA to receive the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his effective, fearless exposure of inefficiency and corruption in government, making a reality of public accountability.

My wife and I are very happy and grateful to be here in Manila as guests of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. I am indeed delighted to be able to receive in person the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service at this colorful ceremony. 

I thank the Board of Trustees for having considered me worthy of receiving this high honor — an honor that I never dreamt of winning. Indeed, when a representative of a local newspaper in Kuala Lumpur told me the news around noon on August 1st, before I received the official telegram, I could not believe it. I thought I was being made a victim of a joke! This award is truly a godsend to me. 

It is also a great privilege for me to join the ranks of distinguished recipients, who have achieved distinction in various fields of human endeavor far greater than what I have been able to do in my own. They come from different academic and professional backgrounds, and their achievements have often been at great personal sacrifice. By comparison, I am just like a dwarf among giants, both in terms of physical build and personal accomplishments. I have been given this award for just doing the work for which I get paid. I did not think much about getting recognition. If the result of what I am doing in the line of duty has brought about an impact of some benefit to society, that in itself is already reward enough for me. This Award is even more significant to me and the audit profession, for I understand that this is the first time a member of the auditing fraternity has been so honored. 

The late President Ramon Magsaysay is remembered for his belief in the ideals of social justice, in the rights of individuals and in the importance of morality in government. He is remembered for his courageous efforts to realize these ideals. We want good government. We should learn from his wisdom how to put these ideals into practice. 

About 300 years ago the British poet, Alexander Pope, wrote rather cynically, “For form of government let fools contest, whatever is best administered is best.” Governments everywhere are still searching for the best methods to get the best out of public administration. We in Malaysia have chosen parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy as our form of government. It has worked quite well for the past 28 years. Today, August 31st, is the 28th Anniversary of our Independence, the starting point of that form of democracy. However, we are still trying to improve our methods of administration. 

The business of government becomes increasingly complex as it gets more directly involved in economic activities. We experience this phenomenon in my country. 

A responsible government knows that it must be accountable to the people for what it does or fails to do. There is, however, a tendency among governments to show this accountability more by appearances than by reality. For example, it is the fashion nowadays for governments to publicize far and wide what they plan to do for the good of the people with tax money and borrowings; but they tend to be less informative about their blunders and failures. Chances are that the civil servants get the blame, not because of hastily conceived plans, but for doing the wrong things. 

The rapid growth of public expenditure in my country during the last decade — from about M$7 billion in 1975 to an estimated M$29 billion in 1985 — has placed a heavy strain on the administrative and management capacity of the public service. It has brought in its wake problems of accountability. Until the impact of economic recession was seriously felt in 1982, the emphasis was to achieve the maximum financial targets in development spending. Control became lax, and as a result the standards of accountability suffered. When I joined the Audit Department in 1976, I thought that the accounting and auditing systems were very much in need of reform. 

Auditing in its wider sense means to review and evaluate results of financial activities in order to ascertain value for money spent. It is not just to express an opinion on the correctness of the accounts. Public accountability should cover the whole spectrum of financial management. I believe that with trained and experienced officers, the Audit Department could play a more useful role in public administration. True, we still have to look for errors and omissions. But this is not an end in itself. What is more important for auditors is to identify weaknesses in the system, analyze their causes, and suggest that administrators and managers take remedial measures as quickly as possible. We should try to make people aware of the need to be careful with public money. It is everybody’s money. It should be spent for a purpose which serves the greatest good for the greatest number. The people have a right to know how their money is used. They must have confidence in the Audit Department in carrying out its functions objectively. The press also has a role to play in promoting public accountability. It should be fair in reporting matters published in the Audit Reports and avoid sensitive issues that may cause misunderstanding and tension. 

If there has been any impact from what I have done to make the Audit Department play a more positive role in public administration, I alone cannot claim credit. The right to find faults and failings in public administration is not exclusive to the Audit Department. Others like the consumer groups, the press and interested individuals who care about public spending have also contributed their efforts to make the ordinary people in Malaysia understand the meaning of accountability of government. Those are the people who make democracy work. 

I share the honor you have given me with the people of Malaysia.

Like some of its neighbors in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is endowed with substantial areas of little used or unused land, some left from slash and burn and others logged over or still in virgin jungle. For these countries such land areas offer both a potential human “safety valve” as populations increase, and an opportunity to expand production of crops increasingly demanded at home or in the world market.

Yet, for most of Southeast Asia resettlement often has remained a distant goal. Repeatedly, landless families from overcrowded communities have migrated to the frontier, only to fail as pioneering farmers. They have been defeated by lack of transportation and ineffective law and order, or they were without the means and skills to bring appropriate crops into production and to market. Individual families in particular have foundered, where effective cooperation among neighbors might have saved them all.

Even before Malaysian independence in 1957, leaders of the emerging nation studied how to transform landless laborers into productive planters. The Emergency, resulting from communist insurrection, and racial tensions, arising from economic and cultural differences among Malays, Indians and Chinese, demanded basic solutions. Over 116,000 unprocessed land applications had accumulated, and land hunger was compounded by rural unemployment and poverty.

Initially, the federal government relied upon providing an infrastructure of roads, schools, public health facilities and mosques, leaving much of the actual land development to individual states. When this proved inadequate, the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) shifted to a “systems approach.” Each resettlement project was planned in advance; contractors built roads, houses and other facilities, cleared land and planted rubber and oil palm trees. As selected families moved in they earned a subsistence allowance tending the eight or ten acres assigned to them, meanwhile starting orchards and gardens on their two-acre home sites. More recently FELDA shifted to allotting settlers shares in jointly managed plantation blocks.

Nearly 60,000 families, resettled on approximately 1.3 million acres, are repaying most capital costs with interest over 20 years. Settler family monthly incomes frequently equal US$245 to US$300 or more. Increasingly, farm leaders share in FELDA’s management of marketing, and operation of oil palm mills and rubber factories, as they have done in recent expansion into production of sugar and cocoa.

More than anyone else, the modest public servant who has made a success of FELDA is Raja MUHAMMAD ALIAS. Born in Negri Sembilan in 1932, he entered the Malayan Civil Service in 1958, serving with distinction as District Officer. He was appointed Deputy Chairman of FELDA in 1966 and was elevated to Group Chairman in 1979.

Raja ALIAS has steadily shaped FELDA as a more human-oriented enterprise. By recognizing and mobilizing the initiative of settlers, he is fostering new communities with a growing sense of self-reliance. A thorough planner who has resisted political pressures by insisting FELDA must follow rules, he has quietly organized a high-caliber staff. His own working hours are longest. He refuses fees from the many FELDA-connected enterprises he helps direct. His schoolteacher wife shares family costs. With this quality of commitment he has been able to demonstrate that even on some of Malaysia’s less fertile lateritic soils, once-indigent families can create productive agriculture and contribute to community and national well-being.

In electing Raja MUHAMMAD ALIAS to receive the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his steadfast, principled administration in translating Malaysia’s “land for the landless” schemes into prosperous realities.

I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to the Chairman and Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for having bestowed upon me such a great honor. As an employee of the Government of Malaysia, I believe that this honor properly belongs to the government. When I joined the Malaysian Civil Service in 1958 I was told by my superior that, as a newly-independent nation, our country needed hard work and dedication from its civil servants. We had a big task ahead of us, particularly in rural development. Ever since I have tried to do my duty to the government and the people. For doing my duty I have been honored with this Award. It was a real surprise to me.

I do not think I have done anything exceptional. I have only carried out what is expected of me. This Award is not so much for me as for my organization, the Federal Land Development Authority, or FELDA for short. Earlier this year FELDA was honored with a similar award by the Malaysian Tun Razak Foundation. Now another award? a most coveted one? has come its way. 1980 is, therefore, a very auspicious year for FELDA.

What FELDA has been doing and trying to do in the last 23 years is nothing novel or new. It has been organizing land settlement projects for the many landless rural people in Malaysia. Our objective is not different from that of the late President Magsaysay. His efforts in rural reform and helping the poor will be long remembered. His untimely demise deprived the people of Asia of a dedicated leader and a statesman. Nevertheless the flame that he lit continues to burn, not only in the hearts of the Filipino people, but all over Asia. The creation of the Ramon Magsaysay Award is fitting tribute to a great leader, who made the eradication of human poverty his obsession in the service of his people. It is no exaggeration to say that I am overawed on this occasion. To be able to bask in some of the glory of this great leader is something that I have never dreamed of.

To the Chairman and Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, I thank you once again for this honor which I will always treasure. This Award cuts across national boundaries and through the artificial barriers that humans build; such contribution to mankind will always be cherished. To the people of the Philippines, I wish to say thank you for your hospitality.

Traditionally museums have proven valuable for collecting, preserving and displaying artifacts and other historical evidence of civilization and natural history. Chiefly they have been centers of research and repositories, serving serious scholars and the intellectually curious seeking to understand the origins and evolution of cultures.

Indicative of SHAHRUM BIN YUB’s broader concept of a museum’s popular and creative educational role are the more than 26 million visitors to Muzium Negara in Kuala Lumpur since he assumed leadership in 1967. His philosophy that visiting the museum should be as natural for children and adults “as wearing shoes” has had extraordinary results. A nature conservation exhibit drawing 90,000 viewers in the first five days was only one of some 24 annual special exhibits for which the doors are open until six and sometimes ten in the evening. In addition, a mobile van carries museum exhibitions, including traditional shadow plays and folk dramas, to rural schools and villages throughout peninsular Malaysia.

The first task of a museum is to teach, in the view of SHAHRUM and his associates. Although the Muzium Negara is not large but rather intimate in arrangement, the four galleries, featuring the cultural past, prehistory and the arts and crafts of aboriginal peoples, natural history and key segments of the nation’s economy, afford a comprehensive view of the nation. Colorful, three-dimensional settings enliven awareness and appreciation of the rich diversity of the land and the multiracial society. In the central hall and under open sheds outside are held well-publicized changing demonstrations of weaving traditional textiles, woodcarving, rigging fishing vessels and native games, like top spinning contests between villagers. Stamp, coin, currency and international children’s art exhibits, and a history of boxing with live participation, are interspersed with presentations on contemporary problems such as drug abuse.

The eclectic entrepreneur of this unique cultural enterprise was born in Perak, Malaya (now Malaysia), 44 years ago. After his schooling in Malaya, SHAHRUM studied anthropology at Leeds University and museology at the British Museum. Returning in 1962 to become museum Curator of Ethnography, he did field work among aborigines and rural Malays and, since appointment as Director General in 1967, has encouraged scholarly research on folk customs, rare flowers and birds of the federation and traditional musical instruments. Archeological excavations are now supervised by the museum and national treasures are better protected under an amended antiquities ordinance he helped write.

The Museum holds regular courses for preschool children on painting, animals, birds and early history, while teachers study such skills as taxidermy. A symposium in Kuala Lumpur on neurological science occasioned a display of traditional Malay medical practice at Muzium Negara. The museum staff also readily helps others mount exhibits.

Just as the museum is SHAHRUM’s life, he has made it part of the life of fellow Malaysians. Together with able co-workers trained around the world, he is giving his people an educational institution that carries the heritage of the past into their modernizing society.

In electing SHAHRUM BIN YUB to receive the 1978 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his making a living museum an enlightening experience for all ages, fostering a national cultural awakening.

I am deeply honored and grateful for this Award. I am honored because it has been made in the name of so great and popular a leader of your country, Ramon Magsaysay. I also am honored to be among the illustrious personalities who have received this prestigious Award in the past and to be with those of my distinguished contemporaries who are to receive the Award today.

I like to think that the Award is not only a personal honor to me, but more importantly to the institution for which I am responsible, the National Museum of Malaysia, and to my loyal staff who have no less dedicated themselves to its service. I thank God the Almighty and the Government of Malaysia for the privilege given to me to serve my country in my humble way in the service of the National Museum in Kuala Lumpur.

What is most gratifying in receiving this Award is the recognition which the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation has given to the importance of museums in the life of the community. We find the concept of a museum as an instrument of education present in human society as early as 300 B.C. Then, in Alexandria, Egypt, was created a museum as an institution of learning.

The term museum conveys the image of an institution that has on display, in three dimensional form, the artifacts of man from the earliest of times to the present day, giving the visitor a sense of realism and participation. These artifacts are testimony of the strivings of men’s minds with the problems of life and destiny through the ages. They furnish evidence of how man has attained an ever increasing degree of mastery over the inclemency of nature.

We learn from these artifacts, that man, while struggling for survival, has also taken time to reflect on his lot. We learn of his search for the significance of the world and his life within it, a quest which he has never ceased to pursue. We learn of his illuminating discovery that all creation must have had a beginning, that there was a creator, his realization that there must be God.

We find that man has always endeavored to make his implements artistic as well as utilitarian. The three major visual arts, architecture, sculpture and painting, and the minor arts, decorative and functional crafts, such as the making of furniture, crockery, apparel, rugs, carpets, and vases, have very much been infused with the cultural and aesthetic values and the religious and philosophic concepts of man. They illumine man’s yearnings of yet higher attainments.

In times such as ours we, who cherish a liberal and tolerant society with freedom of worship and the democratic process as the basis of rule, can draw strength from our rich cultural heritage to awaken and enlighten our fellowmen. In this, our task is lightened as man’s desire to understand rather than just obey is innate.

A museum should be able to make a distinctive contribution to enriching man’s understanding of himself and his environment. A museum should be able to give men the opportunity to better appreciate his aesthetic inclinations and his spiritual aspirations and thus guide him to a richer living.

This then is the message a museum conveys to all mankind and the Foundation’s recognition of this important role has been demonstrated by the Award made to me, a recognition which will be appreciated by the museum world, particularly in this region.

Law is the cement of enduring civilizations, codifying aspirations of a people for their mutual well-being. The law thus must supersede the individual, yet, in its framing and interpretation, sensitivity to personal needs and simple justice are requisite for its continued acceptance. Especially is this so when diverse customs and values must be welded to shape a common national identity.

Tun SUFFIAN’s career parallels the emergence of Malaysia. Born in 1917 into a humble family in a kampong in the northern Malayan state of Perak, he was the first pupil of any rural school to win a Queen’s Scholarship. Study in England at Cambridge University was followed by call to Bar at the Middle Temple, London in 1941. En route back to Malaya, the Japanese occupation of his homeland caught him in Ceylon. Joining the war effort he began broadcasting to Malaya for All India Radio and later for the British Broadcasting Company.

The end of hostilities prompted SUFFIAN’s return to England to study public administration and social anthropology at the London School of Economics, before joining the Malayan Civil Service. Named Magistrate of Malacca in 1948, he also served as Harbor Master. Throughout the difficult years of the Emergency he was posted to such city and state positions as Federal Counsel, Public Prosecutor, Solicitor-General and Constitutional Adviser in Kuala Lumpur, Johore Bahru, Brunei and Pahang. He learned to know broadly his people and their problems. While serving as High Court Judge in Alor Star in 1964, after creation of the Federation of Malaysia, he was appointed Pro-Chancellor of the University of Malaya, and the following year became Chairman of the Royal Commission on Salaries of the Public Service.

Called to head Malaysia’s court system as Lord President in 1974, SUFFIAN’s life long pursuit of fostering both better government and better citizenship has not slackened. His book on Malaysia’s constitution, written in fairly simple language, was aimed at the wide public outside the university and the courtroom. The Government relies upon him to head commissions on controversial issues, knowing a careful study will be made on time and his findings will be trusted. Withal, in deportment and concern he has retained a sense of his simple beginnings, advising others in high office not to be dazzled by prestige.

Searching for a new legal synthesis that truly will make Malaysia a harmonious society, guiding the university system to relevance, speaking with a voice of moderation, SUFFIAN gives form to his motto, “life is service.” For the young of his nation he has provided a model of what can be accomplished for the public good by following this precept.

In electing Tun MOHAMED SUFFIAN BIN HASHIM to receive the 1975 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his uprightness and humanity in adapting Western legal forms to realities of his own plural Asian society and shaping the public institutions of a new nation.

My wife and I are delighted to be here today to receive the Magsaysay Award. It came out of the blue on Saturday 3 August when at about 5:00 p.m. a friend in Kuala Lumpur rang me up at home to say that he heard announcement of it on TV a few minutes earlier. The Award came as a great and pleasant surprise.

Your late President Ramon Magsaysay cared for people and believed in the dignity and importance of the individual. He strove to improve the lot of his countrymen. He had courage, he had conviction. His ire was aroused whenever he saw injustice. He believed that freedom should be enjoyed by all. I shall strive to live up to the ideals that inspired him.

The Award is a great honor to me, personally, and I cannot express how happy I am to be in the distinguished company of so many eminent men and women who have been similarly rewarded, especially when I remember that two of the five Malaysian recipients were Prime Ministers.

The Award is, however, a greater honor to the judiciary of this region than to me personally, for you have never before honored a judge. I am very proud that I am the first and may I express the hope that I won’t be the last judge to win this Award.

In a developing country like Malaysia we are dependent on agriculture, fishing and other peasant activities which bring little reward in terms of material things, and our various governments do the right thing by bending their efforts towards fostering and increasing industries and manufactures so that we get more return for our labor and spread the good things of life among more and more of our people. So the emphasis, certainly in my country, has been to produce more and more economists, accountants, bankers, manufacturers; more and more engineers, architects, surveyors; more and more doctors, dentists, scientists, and so on, people whose efforts can result in increasing our bread and butter. Though during the struggle for independence lawyers were most courageous and skillful fighters and were always to the fore, yet after independence, apart from the few lawyer-politicians who man the cabinet and the legislature and the civil service, the importance of the legal profession has been eclipsed by the importance of citizens who fell the forest and till the soil; who build roads, bridges and houses; open and run schools, universities, hospitals, and clinics, and open and run factories, banks, insurance companies, and the like, persons whose efforts visibly increase the GNP and generally help the citizenry to a better and more prosperous life. In Malaysia during the period after independence the legal profession, as such, has occupied a back seat, and its role has never caught the public imagination.

Practising lawyers are themselves to blame for the comparatively insignificant part they are playing during the most formative stage in the history of our developing country. They tend not to see the wood for the trees, and in the endeavor to serve their client’s interest they get lost in a jungle of technicalities and forget that the law is also an instrument to be used for the general improvement of the community. The law is not something immutable, something carved on tablets of stone that cannot be changed. The law should serve man, not man the law, though of course man must obey it until it has been changed if we are to avoid anarchy. My philosophy is quite simple: having read in history books that the law can be used as an engine of oppression, we should, on the contrary, determine to use it as an instrument to improve the lot of mankind, as an instrument for bringing about a good and just government in a system whereby it is possible for us to choose the persons who decide our present and future and to change them at periodic intervals through the ballot box rather than the bullet.

Government is responsible for making the law, and governments try to enact just laws, but laws are made to suit the times, and when times change sometimes the law ceases to be just in its application to actual cases. I have always held the view that it is the public duty of every lawyer to bring to the notice of the authorities instances of antiquated laws so that they may be amended and brought up to date, in line with new circumstances and modern ideas of what is and what is not just. This is especially important in a newly independent country.

Having dealt with lawyer-politicians who make the law, and lawyers who practice the law, I now turn to judges. Their role in the courtroom is well known and there is no need for me to say anything about it. Today I would rather talk of the extracurricular activities of a judge. He should eschew partisan politics and not indulge in public controversies. His judgments are often reported in the daily papers, and are accepted for their impartiality. Accordingly, he enjoys a special place in the community, being regarded as fair-minded and not swayed in a multiracial and multi-religious country by racial and religious considerations, being guided simply by what is just. Enjoying the confidence of the public, outside the courtroom he should be ready to perform community functions, serving on a school board, or in any other educational capacity, doing work among young people, serving the Red Cross, and the Government may call upon him to serve on or head a Commission of Enquiry. The last is particularly true of Malaysia where everytime the Opposition demand a public enquiry they always stipulate that it be led by a High Court judge. The judiciary is naturally proud of the confidence shown by the public in our sense of fair play. My attitude has always been to accept whatever assignment is thrust upon me beyond the line of duty, provided that there are no political overtones to the assignment, for nothing harms the judiciary more than being involved, or thought to be involved, in partisan politics. No matter how humble his origin, when a person has become a judge he belongs to a privileged community and it is his privilege to serve the community in any capacity not inconsistent with his judicial office.

I am lucky in having been invited to serve the community outside the courtroom in several capacities. Other Malaysian judges have also been similarly lucky, but I am luckier than all of them, because my activities came to the notice of your trustees with very pleasant results indeed to my wife and me, for it has enabled us to visit your great country and meet so many interesting and wonderful people.

The Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRIM) scientists and technicians are showing that farmers in developing lands, guided by effective application of systematized knowledge and organization, can compete with great, multinational corporations and safeguard their means of livelihood.

Since the cultivation of Hevea brasiliensis trees to tap their latex began with 22 seedlings shipped from Kew Gardens, London, to Singapore’s Botanic Gardens in 1877, the fortunes of the rubber industry have been elastic. As automobiles multiplied before, during and after World War I, several million acres were planted to Hevea in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, India and Sri Lanka. From the peak in the 1920s to the nadir in the Great Depression, rubber prices fluctuated from US$1.23 to three U.S. cents per pound. Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II prompted massive production of synthetic rubber by the West. Subsequent technical advances resulted, by the late 1960s, in a synthetic natural rubber, Cis-1, 4-polyisoprene. The livelihood of many millions growing natural rubber in rural Asia seemed doomed.

Dr. B. C. SEKHAR’s emergence to leadership of the RRIM parallded this challenge to natural rubber, which was felt most acutely in Malaysia as supplier of 40 percent of the world’s total production. Born less than four miles from the Institute’s 3,400-acre experiment station at Sungei Buloh, the now 44-year-old chemist knew rubber firsthand: his father, an immigrant from India in 1916, had worked on rubber estates and become an estate assistant. Joining the Institute in 1949 SEKHAR led research, especially in physiochemical changes, in rubber. He was the first Malaysian to head the Chemistry Division, in 1964, and to become Director of the Institute, in 1966.

As the largest research organization in the world devoted to a single crop, RRIM has reversed natural rubber’s prospects by effective action on five fronts: 1. developing Standard Malaysian Rubbers (SMR) grading to buyers’ technical specifications; 2. producing Heveacrumb that is uniform and superior to bales of ribbed, smoked sheet, and recently a tire-rubber blend; 3. conducting botanical research which has resulted in faster-maturing, higher-yielding, sturdier trees by budding clones and now by tissue culture techniques; 4. simplifying gathering by tapping directly into plastic bags thus also avoiding contamination of the latex; and 5. developing stimulants to paint on rubber trees to double or triple latex yields.

While distinguishing himself as one of Asia’s most effective scientists, SEKHAR has remained sensitive to the human dimension. Research is aimed at reaching and benefiting all through energetic extension by the Institute’s Smallholders Project Research, Training and Advisory Services divisions, and the cooperating Malaysian Government Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority.

In electing BALACHANDRA CHAKKINGAL SEKHAR to receive the 1973 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his leadership of scientific and technical advances that assure a more prosperous and stable future for rubber growers, large and small, in South and Southeast Asia.

No words at my command will be adequate to express the impact this Award has made on me. And not all present can wholly appreciate how this overwhelming moment engulfs me in my own thoughts and feelings, thoughts and feelings which at once scan the spectrum of my adult life, highlighting moments of satisfaction and disappointments, achievements and failures. Equally, one is reminded in this train of thought of the responsibilities that lie ahead, and of the smallness of one’s achievements against the requirements of one’s chosen field of endeavor. I am all the more conscious of this default when I think of the great man in whose memory this Award is so significantly and rightly instituted to inspire us to emulate his complete and selfless dedication to the improvement of his fellowmen. In receiving this Award, therefore, I am only too aware of how much more one should really do to become truly worthy of the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

The natural rubber industry is the economic lifeblood of many countries in Southeast Asia, and certainly of my country. In a fast-changing world the requirements imposed on an agricultural commodity in competition with a sophisticated industrial product must be met if it is to survive. For success in this struggle for survival two essential conditions must be fulfilled. First, modern science and technology must be brought to bear in all their manifestations in formulating solutions to meet changing industrial and economic requirements. Second, such solutions must be actively translated into practice for the benefit of the entire industry. In fulfilling the first condition, a team of dedicated scientists and technologists with a clear understanding of the problems and with a depth of knowledge and a vision relentlessly to pursue the solutions must be available. The second condition demands that the affected countries must consciously, concertedly, and urgently attack the problem of implementing the improvements.

I have been in the very fortunate and privileged position of having colleagues who measure up to such demands and a country which is determined to support in every way any effort to improve and modernize an industry which contributes to the well-being of millions of people. The recognition and honor I receive today therefore extends to my colleagues at the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia and to my country.

My own satisfaction stems from the quiet recognition that millions of people in my own country and other natural rubber producing countries are now beginning to share the returns from a scientifically exploited and modernized natural rubber industry. That my own small efforts have contributed to this improvement makes me only feel deeply and warmly grateful that circumstances allowed me the privilege and opportunity to serve the natural rubber industry.

Natural rubber once reigned as the single, supreme sovereign in the empire of elastomers. But scientific progress, pushed ahead by political and economic forces, not only produced pretenders to the throne but also heirs who claimed rightful control in specific areas. In the midst of this claim for supremacy, the future role of natural rubber was challenged and the livelihood of millions in the developing countries of Southeast Asia was threatened. In fact, it was even prophesied that natural rubber would be forced to abdicate, and would suffer a fate similar to so many raw, primary products that have been ousted by superior, synthetic substitutes.

By research and development programs concerned with production economics, presentation standards, and consumer technology, we have proved that the future of so many in our developing countries, which is riveted to the natural rubber industry, need not be impaired. Indeed, the use of science and technology allows us to assure these same people a future which can be stronger, safer and sunnier.

As a scientist, I cannot help but feel that it is by the proper and urgent use of science and technology that quickly improve the economic well-being of our people.

In the natural rubber industry the impact of science has been felt. And arising from this, our ordinary people are beginning to harvest the economic returns. But equally important is the fact that the implementation of scientific research cultivates the scientific mind and spirit. This cannot be otherwise; for to utilize the fruits of research, the mind, the intellect, must be receptive. I can sense the positive social transformation that will take place where obsolete, old ideas give way to new, strong and progressive views. And so I see the progress of our natural rubber industry as one not merely contributing to the material welfare of rubber growers but also, importantly, molding the scientific mind and outlook so vital for our development. Thus I feel that this Award is not made only to me, but to the many of us in the natural rubber industry who are striving to ensure the progress of our people.

I, therefore, am grateful that this Award recognizes this urge for progress, and in receiving it I am again conscious of the willing help I have received from so many which has given me happiness in my work that is beyond the power of failure or sorrow to destroy.

Molding diverse peoples into a nation and moving them from feudalism to modernity demands leadership possessed of a rare range of skills. Sound plans are needed. Malaysia’s are designed to be translated promptly into more democratic economic well-being. Official management must be more than energetic; it must temper insistent pressure for performance by government and the private sector with astute awareness of what is possible at a given moment. At this level politics becomes both a science and an art. Tun RAZAK is its devoted practitioner.

Pahang State, where ABDUL RAZAK was born in 1922, is in the heartland of traditional Malay culture. Influenced by this setting and the career of his father, a hereditary chief and a senior member of the Malayan Civil Service, the alert young man grew to value the best from East and West. When his studies at Raffles College in Singapore were interrupted by the Japanese attack, RAZAK helped organize Wataniah, the Malayan Resistance Movement.

In England after the war, where he qualified for the Bar with distinction in half the usual time, RAZAK met Tunku Abdul Rahman. Soon fast friends, they and associates in the Malay Society of Great Britain were caught up in the excitement of independence for neighboring lands of the Empire. From the brutal tragedy accompanying partition of India and Pakistan grew the determination to cooperate with Chinese, Indians and others in making theirs a genuinely multiracial nation with room for all faiths.

Back in Malaya, ABDUL RAZAK became Deputy President of the United Malays National Organization and a leader of the Alliance Party that won over communal prejudice at the polls in 1955, thus hurdling the major barrier to independence. The youngest Chief Minister of a Malay State as Mentri Besar of Pahang, RAZAK resigned from the Malayan Civil Service to stand for election and won handily the seat from his home constituency. As Education Minister, he joined in negotiations the next year in London that culminated in Merdeka (independence) on August 31st, 1957. As Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of independent Malaya, he directed the war against Communist terrorists who rejected an amnesty and plea for peaceful cooperation in building the new nation. Winning villagers away from the insurgents, by July 1960 his government could proclaim the Emergency ended.

Realizing that independence would prove a mirage without a new way of life for their people, the government created a Ministry of National and Rural Development headed by Tun ABDUL RAZAK to plan and implement bold change. Today, some 140,000 acres of virgin land have been opened for 12,000 near-landless families in 60 successful settlement schemes. Meticulously engineered, these new communities are complete with access roads, schools, teachers’ quarters, water supplies, telephones, electricity, health facilities, public halls, shops and houses of worship. Each settler starts anew with eight acres planted to high yielding rubber or oil palm, two acres for orchard, a house, garden plot and a modest subsidy until his first income crop. For these, he repays the government over a period of years.

Irrigation and drainage projects have increased five-fold acreage capable of being double-cropped in rice. On small and large holdings throughout the Federation agriculture is being diversified; production of livestock, fish and forest products has increased rapidly. Locally manufactured goods of many types have begun to replace imports. In urban centers are 13,200 new low-cost housing units. Combating illiteracy and high population growth are well-attended adult education and family planning classes in cities and villages.

To support this vast enterprise, the Government trains intensively an ever increasing cadre of technicians and administrators. From his Operations Room, adapted from his earlier war room and duplicated in every state and district headquarters, Tun RAZAK keeps constant watch on performance by each agency of government assigned responsibility for a share of the work. Scheduled and surprise inspection trips take him 60,000 miles a year. Often working 16 hours a day and living modestly, he expects and gets dedicated service from his subordinates. In his relentless drive to insure that clear plans become early reality, the inhabitants of the old kampongs see their best hope for a new way of life in Malaysia.

In electing His Excellency, Tun ABDUL RAZAK BIN HUSSEIN, to receive the 1967 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes a politician administering with quiet, efficient and innovative urgency the reshaping of his society for the benefit of all.

We are happy that the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia receives the 1967 Magsaysay Award today when festivities are taking place all over my country marking 10 years of our freedom.

My brother could not come in person to receive the Award because today’s presentation coincides with the Independence Anniversary of Malaysia. He has, therefore, asked me to come to Manila to receive the Award on his behalf.

The Deputy Prime Minister has asked me to deliver this message to you all. I quote:

“I would like to apologize for not being able to receive the Award personally. However, I feel greatly honored to be chosen the winner of the 1967 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. I am indeed grateful to the members of the Magsaysay Foundation Board of Trustees for their recognition of whatever little I have done, am doing and will continue to do for the development of Malaysia and the progress of the Malaysian masses. Your recognition will, I have no doubt, spur Malaysians to further and greater progress and achievements”.

“It has not been an easy job for my colleagues in the government and for me personally to do whatever we have done for our country. We have achieved progress and political stability as a result of a partnership of efforts. The Malaysian people have responded and our government officers have served well. The politicians have conducted the affairs of the state with great credit to themselves”.

“It is difficult anywhere to move people traditional people as Malaysians are from feudalism to modernity and to mold a diverse people into a nation; but thanks to the Almighty, through partnership of efforts, cooperation and understanding of all the races, we have managed it in Malaysia. This was because we rely on the good sense, the practicability of our ra-ayat (people) and harness their aspirations for stability, affluence and a desire for a respected place in the international community. We put our trust in universal education, and a major part of our national and rural development plan is adult education and community development. We also concentrate on giving the people projects that will afford them lasting economic betterment and create employment opportunities for our youth.

“The late President Magsaysay was regarded by Malaysians as easily the most popular Filipino leader of unchallenged honesty and integrity. He brought order and peace to your country, which was then threatened by communists, and restored the confidence of the people in the government and, with their support, wiped out the Hukbalahap terrorists. He knew this is the only way to fight and best communists”.

“During the same period he was reforming the Philippines and fighting terrorists, we were ourselves fighting communism, which was later also beaten by the same methods that the late President Magsaysay had used in his fight against the Filipino communists”.

“After the war against the terrorists was won in 1960, we found the people weary and longing for progress of which the Emergency had deprived them. So, in 1961, I started the present National and Rural Development Program which has given Malaysia progress, prosperity and political stability. Through the National and Rural Development effort, we have provided for the country a strong framework with many development projects. As a result, Malaysia has a firm base of economic and political stability and a flourishing democracy. Our main job now is to continue our work of nation-building and ensure that all our people will live in peace and harmony and the parliamentary system of government thrives and is strengthened”.

“We in Malaysia regarded the late President Magsaysay as one of communism’s most ardent and effective foes and a staunch believer in international cooperation. But he did not live long enough to see the growing friendship and cooperation between our two countries and the regional cooperation that is about to take place, or is already taking place though in a very limited way, among the sovereign nations of Southeast Asia through various international agencies. We have just formed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which I sincerely hope will grow into a meaningful association serving Southeast Asia.

“I am very glad to see that the Philippines and Malaysia are on the friendliest of terms. I hope the Philippines, Malaysia and other countries in the region will always get together to resolve common problems and to plan and meet common aspirations and ideals. It is in this direction that my country’s foreign policy and objectives are at the moment giving high priority.

The late President Magsaysay served his country well, and I am very glad to be associated with the name and memory of this great man whose life was spent serving his people. Inspired by his example, my only desire in life is to serve the people and my country and, if I can do the little that I know I am capable of in the best traditions of the late President Magsaysay, I would indeed be a happier man.”

In their respective countries, HARLEY KOESNA POERADIREDJA and PALAYIL PATHAZAPURAYIL NARAYANAN have guided labor organizations which have contributed significantly to community living. 

In May, 13 years ago, Mr. KOESNA accepted the challenge of leading Indonesian railway workers who came to seek his help in developing a free trade union that would deal with vocational problems. Their concern was alliances between labor and political parties forged during the struggle for independence which were thwarting emergence of unions as instruments of effective economic action. 

In building the Persatuan Buruh Kerata Api (PBKA), or Railways Workers’ Union of Indonesia, KOESNA adapted to Indonesian needs some methods used successfully by genuine trade unions elsewhere. The progressive and well-administered PBKA is solidly founded on monthly membership dues. Members now benefit from such joint enterprises as an accident insurance program, a savings and loan bank, a housing loan fund and a hospital. 

Most notable have been the Union’s efforts to protect members in a prolonged period of more rapid increase in prices than wages. Through operation of rice mills, a clothing and shoe factory and a soap plant, prime need commodities are provided at low cost and workers’ incomes augmented by employing other family members. 

Strict management of union funds permitted savings that financed construction of a modern four-story headquarters in Bandung and the purchase of a printing press for union publications. Insistent, well-substantiated representations on behalf of members to the Government-run Railway Administration have resulted in such improvements as safeguards to minimize unemployment, a pension fund which protects widows and orphans as well as retired railway personnel, and a Moslem New Year bonus. 

Convinced that society should see to the welfare of the common man, KOESNA nevertheless insists that people must work to better themselves. Through the years he had remained humble but resolute; giving the workers what they want, not only what he thinks is best for them, he insists the PBKA must have no political domination. 

Similar goals were being sought in Malaya by P. P. NARAYANAN, an immigrant from South India at the age of 14. Inspired by Malaya as a land of opportunity, hard labor in a tin mine and on a rubber plantation as an impressionable 19-year-old nurtured in him an intense desire to help workers share in the promising future. 

Starting with a group of 10 men at Seremban in 1946, he formed the nucleus that ultimately became the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) of Malaya. With a strength of 180,000 dues paying members, it is today one of the largest, richest, and best organized in Southeast Asia. 

P. P. NARAYANAN began his undertaking in a period of insurgency when both managers and many estate workers held the common belief that trade unionists were professional troublemakers and union membership meant sympathizing with the terrorists. He had not only to win with the employers the case for labor’s legitimate aspirations but also prove to labor the benefits of organization. 

Plantation workers measure the consequences of this effort today in a wage scale that is four times higher than before they were organized. Medical care for workers and their families, improved housing to meet new government standards, education for children and a respect for labor as an essential part of the community have become common features on Malayan plantations. The Union does not exist only to get more from management but concerns itself with education of workers on their responsibilities as trade unionists and citizens. 

The NUPW today is esteemed both by men who sit across the bargaining table and abroad for its forthright conduct of workers’ interests. “Negotiate first” is the rule, and compromise is usually reached without stoppage of work. The Union discourages communal discrimination and maintains political affiliation is an individual matter for each member. It publishes the only labor paper in Malaya, in Tamil, Chinese and Malay editions. With strength in depth through second and third level officers trained in union management, NUPW leaders have traveled to share their experience with similar groups in other developing countries. 

In electing HARLEY KOESNA POERADIREDJA and PALAYIL PATHAZAPURAYIL NARAYANAN as the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes their championship of the workers’ cause through vigorous advancement of responsible and free trade unionism.

I would like to begin my response with an enunciation of Newton’s second law of motion which states: “The rate of change of momentum is proportional to the impressed force and takes place in the direction in which the force acts.” 

With your kind permission I would like to stretch this law in its application to human endeavor by stating that it is not only proportional but in this process of its interaction it becomes cumulative. And I believe that the Award should set in motion a chain reaction that would release an enormous force for positive action. This is what the Magsaysay Award means to me. It is my privilege and honor to announce here and now that I dedicate myself to spread the spirit of Magsaysay in my own country by setting apart half the amount of the award for a Workers’ Education Foundation. Sages of Asia have told us that any positive idea is like the tiny seed that produces the great banyan tree that provides shade and shelter to a multitude of people. This award you have bestowed on me today I believe is the first stone that would cause the ever-widening ripples of philanthropy in my country and, I venture to say, would soon find equal response in other parts of Asia. 

I would like to recall now the words of wisdom by the great American, Harry Emerson Fosdick, who said: “Democracy is a conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people and if the doors of opportunities are opened surprising consequences will flow from unlikely sources.” I believe that the key to those doors is education, and we all know that democracy itself hinges on education, and it is towards that goal that this Workers’ Education Foundation will completely devote itself in the days to come. 

Let me assure you that this Foundation I hope to create will to a great degree reincarnate the spirit, the faith and the philosophy of Ramon Magsaysay, who lived and toiled for the small man so that no person would be denied the opportunity for a full life contributing to the enrichment of the society whatever his station in life. 

Now let me pause and look back on the events that pulled me into the vortex of the trade union movement that has thrust me before you. It was 16 years ago. That was the time when the Communist Party of Malaya decided to snatch the government by force. The first move in their operation was to subvert the trade unions. Things moved fast. Every trade unionist was suspect; we did not know where to look for guidance. Subversion was the order of the day. There was massacre and arson. The game was loaded against us. There were the workers insulated by the feudalistic employers on one side and on the other the threat of the terrorists, who were determined to wreck any democratic trade unions. Under the shadow of this threat 11 good and true men met. It was on January 27th, 1946, that they met in dismal surroundings, and it was at that meeting that the idea of a union germinated. 

Today, this union, the National Union of Plantation Workers, embraces a membership of over 180,000. But this was achieved only after years of hard work and series of meetings to convince the sectarian unions before they could realize the benefits of national integrated unions. We have now gone far from the days of our beginning. We have achieved something, but there is a lot more to be done. This recognition of what little we have achieved will spur us on to greater efforts to promote the welfare and well-being of the workers. 

Now I stand here in all humility as a representative of Malayan workers to accept this great honor. To me the greatest significance of this moment is that for the first time in the history of Asia the worker has been elevated to a position that his humble representative has been chosen to receive this Award.