Frequently eclipsed by the sheer struggle for physical well-being are those aspects of life from which higher inspiration is drawn. The spirit moves man to accomplishment against obstacles he may otherwise judge insuperable. During past millennia of recorded civilization the performing arts have prompted man to realize his inner potential in a manner matched by few other influences except religion. 

Throughout the Philippine Archipelago only in this century with the coming of modern transport and communication have most individuals found an opportunity to participate in a truly national consciousness. Commerce, education and politics dominated this emerging Filipino identity for many decades. 

Meanwhile, a nucleus of artistically creative pioneers encouraged their fellow countrymen to seek a deeper understanding of themselves. Upon foundations they built, today’s generation can enlarge the public arena in which theater, music and other performing arts become a relevant experience to the majority. 

Following in the path marked by founders of drama groups like Severino Montano, Wilfredo Guerrero and Lamberto Avellana, CECILE GUIDOTE has added new dimensions to Filipino theater. Born 29 years ago to a mother who supported her family as a nurse after the death of her guerrilla captain husband during World War II, she early showed precocious talent. Later, teaching at St. Paul College in Manila and studying at the State University of New York and the Dallas Theater Center in Texas, she devised a practical program for a national theater. Organized in 1967, this became the Philippine Educational Theater Association, known familiarly as PETA. 

While many have devoted abilities and time to PETA and its emphasis upon theater for education, CECILE GUIDOTE, serving as Executive Director, has totally dedicated herself to its purposes, despite inadequate funds and other handicaps. A “Theater in the Ruins” at Fort Santiago is only one among numerous PETA efforts to make drama an integral part of Filipino life. Consequential for both young and adult thespians are PETA’s training courses in writing, staging, directing and acting. These frequently focus upon realities of today but insist that dramatic excellence comes first. 

For culturally deprived rural Filipinos GILOPEZ KABAYAO, playing the violin and occasionally the piano, has opened musical vistas they would not otherwise have known. Son of a prosperous doctor-farmer, he learned first to play the violin from his father and the piano from his mother. Eventually training under American, Italian and French masters, he became an international virtuoso, invited to perform with the Vienna and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras and at Town Hall in New York. Nevertheless his major effort since 1952 has been devoted to bringing fine music to his own people. From schools in Panay, Bicol and Mindanao, to cockpits in Negros and Romblon, improvised stages in Mountain Province, and a boxing ring in Cebu, he has purposefully given of his talent, often contributing the gate proceeds to community projects. 

GILOPEZ KABAYAO thinks of music as much more than entertainment. In a world that hardens men and women, he is convinced their callousness can be overcome by the “soothing, elevating, humanizing and divinifying power of music.” Accompanied on the piano sometimes by his mother or sister, this 42-year-old violinist has won a tremendous response from diverse audiences throughout the islands. Patiently, he has taught students wherever he goes the theory of music and encouraged them to play instruments. 

In their separate yet complementary ways these two gifted Filipinos have demonstrated that the quality of life can be enhanced for a people by individuals who care and who school their artistic talents to this purpose. 

In electing CECILE REYES GUIDOTE and GILOPEZ KABAYAO to share the 1972 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes their leadership in the renaissance of the performing arts, giving a new cultural content to popular life.

My father died before I was born. He joined the guerrilla movement and dismissed the fears, tears and anxieties of my mother with the urgent explanation of fighting to give us the gift of freedom. I often wondered about him. My father left me a shining legacy of giving, loving, and fighting for one’s convictions. He was medal-less, but he is my hero. Even as a child, as his daughter, I was resolved to define and seek my own service to our people. 

At the age of 16, working at the Orthopedic Hospital, I was deeply impressed how a frail, shy girl on crutches, whose hands were sweaty, whose eyes were downcast, who could speak inaudibly only through trembling lips, found herself. She blossomed into a beautiful character on stage, acknowledging the cheers of the other patients who were a most enthusiastic audience. The wonder-therapy for her incredible personality development and social adjustment was drama. 

A further realization of theater as a formidable means of influencing thought came into focus while I was working with teenagers as a constructive reaction against the rise of juvenile delinquency. It was noticeable that participants’ sensitivity, flexibility, imagination, creative facilities and expression were being cultivated as we continuously developed weekly original TV dramas. These dramas functioned not merely as a platform for entertainment, but also as an arena for social action where youth’s present problems and future goals were discussed to provide consciousness expansion. 

Surely, if the scope was broadened, if we had a national theater movement truthfully articulating our people’s thoughts, feelings, values and aspirations, if we could develop and encourage theater artists to draw from the wealth of indigenous folklore, legends and ethnoepics—to understand them, to teach from them and to improve upon them in order to provide a knowledge and understanding of the region’s temper, tradition, figures of speech, and historical trends yet striving to reflect the time in which we live—then we should also be a nation. 

This is where I found meaning to serve, to care and to be involved. My goal became to initiate and develop a network of theater arts programs for enriching curriculum and educational techniques for community development of creative human resources. Such programs could enhance the rehabilitation of workers, farmers and prisoners and provide specialized workshops for out-of-school youth, adult illiterates, the mentally retarded and the physically handicapped. They could also contribute to the integration of our ethnic cultural communities. 

My associates and I aspired to provide the necessary high calibre program to encourage, train, promote, disseminate and coordinate professional excellence, artistic skills, research, meaningful expression and experiments within the context of the indigenous Philippine cultural heritage and the richly varied Asian theater traditions. Our movement aimed to build bridges of goodwill to the rest of the world, particularly in the absence of diplomatic arrangements or where political negotiations remained unsuccessful. 

In the face of such great objectives and so little finances, a superior type of manpower rose to the challenge as artists were inspired to work for a newer, more vibrant Philippine theater. 

Its most heartwarming for us that the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation has manifested faith in, and now gives testimony to, the enormous power of theater arts for the public good in our country. 

The joy of this Award is shared by all who unselfishly gave their time, talent and energies, and lent encouraging support to the concerted struggle to establish a theater, not for the coterie and the elite, but for the masses—drawing meaning and power from the lives of Filipinos, speaking in the language of our people. The honor belongs to all in PETA who joined in the determination to displace the false attitudes attached to theater arts as personal exhibitionism and social frivolity by projecting theater arts as public service, effectively applying it as a creative force in evolving and strengthening nationhood and advancing our national development, complementarily utilizing it as a dynamic vehicle for promoting regional friendship and cooperation, as well as international understanding and peace. 

Avenues have been opened and directions set with efforts for a Central Institute of Theater Arts in Southeast Asia and a responsible position in the Third World Project of the International Theater Institute. But the search for and creation of a vital theater that meets the needs of our people is a continuing lifetime process. To this vision we are pledged. It is an art which relies upon the work of many collaborators, united and disciplined but free in order to thrive. 

We can only express our deep appreciation to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for its interest, concern and attention through a strengthening of our commitment. Please know that the Award has given us more courage and greater impatience to tap and guide the vast potentials of our people so that, eventually, the curtains will rise everywhere in the country on theater at its best: “a factory of thought, a prompter of conscience, an elucidator of conduct, an armory against despair, dullness and repression, a temple of the ascent of man.”

Rapid industrialization and commercial expansion usually are achieved at great expense to the ordinary citizen. His labor pays for much of the cost of capital accumulation, without a comparable increase in his earnings. Expenditures on housing, roads, schools, hospitals, parks and other social amenities to ease his life tend to be deferred. Massive urbanization compounds the problems of his daily existence. 

Japan’s post-World War II economic miracle of industrialization and global trading growth is idealized by much of the less developed world. Increasingly affluent Japanese, however, are alarmed that this has been accomplished at the sacrifice of many of the traditional satisfactions and refinements of their society. Often torn from his rural roots, the Japanese worker is trapped in an environment of unfamiliar and disturbing change. As living has become commercialized, he is at the mercy of impersonal and remote manufacturing and marketing enterprises over which he has negligible control. 

YASUJI HANAMORI conceived the format for a magazine that would serve such workers and their families “because during and after the War, their lives were so poor and difficult.” He explained his creed: “I believe that if people can be shown how to do things and to develop human relationships of kindness and affection, living can be more precious and they will resist anybody or any activity that threatens to take it away from them.” 

In 1948, with Miss Shizuko Ohashi as a partner, HANAMORI founded and became editor-in-chief of the magazine, Kurashi-no-Techno. To avoid the risk of compromising its integrity he declined from the start to accept advertising. The first 10,000 copies of this consumer goods testing-and-evaluation quarterly were carried in knapsacks by the staff to bookstores for sale. Over the past 23 years, some 200 products have been tested in the laboratory of the magazine; all such items are purchased on the market to insure they are representative. Today, with a circulation of 800,000, the magazine has become a “bible” for Japanese housewives and others searching for quality. In the process, manufacturers frequently have been impelled to improve their wares. Emphasis is upon products in common use, whether domestic or foreign. Indicative of this approach is the refusal of the magazine to carry recipes unless they can be followed successfully by amateur cooks on the staff shopping in markets and using kitchen appliances available to an average family. 

HANAMORI’s involvement, shared by his associates, goes beyond the material. As revealed in his numerous essays and other published works, he cares for the totality of human experience. Bom in Kobe City in 1911, he majored in aesthetics at the Faculty of Letters in Tokyo University. First drafted into the army in 1937 and sent to Manchuria, he was again drafted during the Pacific War. A sensitive and concerned individual, wartime experience helped shape him into a writer whose continuing identification with the “forgotten people” of Japan has made him their spokesman and guardian. 

In electing YASUJI HANAMORI, editor-in-chief of the magazine, Kurashi-no-Techno, to receive the 1972 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, the Board of Trustees recognizes his cogent advocacy of the interests, rights and well-being of the Japanese consumer, especially the hard-pressed housewife.

It has been an immeasurable honor and pleasure for me to be given the Ramon Magsaysay Award in recognition of my humble work. Your Award has brought double satisfaction as I have felt deep reverence and fellowship towards the late President Magsaysay’s achievements and personal integrity. 

I am grateful to receive this Award as an Asian, as I believe many people in various parts of Asia who are working toward the same goal as mine must get encouragement from this recognition. 

As for myself, to fight to defend the daily living of a great many in the grassroots was not easy and it is rewardless work. Frankly, it has been a pleasant surprise that my work has been considered for today’s honor by your Board, as this is the very first instance the real significance and contribution of my work has been recognized. 

Your encouragement and recognition have given me tremendous impetus and now with renewed determination and confidence I am hoping to pursue my work along with those in various parts of Asia with whom I share the same concern and aspiration. 

It is the greatest regret of my life, therefore, that I cannot attend the presentation to receive your honored Award in person, because of my poor health. In a way, with the Award I am experiencing the greatest joy and the deepest sorrow in my life at the same time. And I would like to extend my deepest apologies to the Honorable Chairman and other Members of the Board and all the people who are attending the Presentation Ceremonies for my absence. 

Before closing my brief address I would like to offer my boundless admiration and profound respect to your country; in the invaluable works of the Magsaysay Foundation and its most highly esteemed Awards we see the exemplification of the ideals of your people.

Frequently eclipsed by the sheer struggle for physical well-being are those aspects of life from which higher inspiration is drawn. The spirit moves man to accomplishment against obstacles he may otherwise judge insuperable. During past millennia of recorded civilization the performing arts have prompted man to realize his inner potential in a manner matched by few other influences except religion. 

Throughout the Philippine Archipelago only in this century with the coming of modern transport and communication have most individuals found an opportunity to participate in a truly national consciousness. Commerce, education and politics dominated this emerging Filipino identity for many decades. 

Meanwhile, a nucleus of artistically creative pioneers encouraged their fellow countrymen to seek a deeper understanding of themselves. Upon foundations they built, today’s generation can enlarge the public arena in which theater, music and other performing arts become a relevant experience to the majority. 

Following in the path marked by founders of drama groups like Severino Montano, Wilfredo Guerrero and Lamberto Avellana, CECILE GUIDOTE has added new dimensions to Filipino theater. Born 29 years ago to a mother who supported her family as a nurse after the death of her guerrilla captain husband during World War II, she early showed precocious talent. Later, teaching at St. Paul College in Manila and studying at the State University of New York and the Dallas Theater Center in Texas, she devised a practical program for a national theater. Organized in 1967, this became the Philippine Educational Theater Association, known familiarly as PETA. 

While many have devoted abilities and time to PETA and its emphasis upon theater for education, CECILE GUIDOTE, serving as Executive Director, has totally dedicated herself to its purposes, despite inadequate funds and other handicaps. A “Theater in the Ruins” at Fort Santiago is only one among numerous PETA efforts to make drama an integral part of Filipino life. Consequential for both young and adult thespians are PETA’s training courses in writing, staging, directing and acting. These frequently focus upon realities of today but insist that dramatic excellence comes first. 

For culturally deprived rural Filipinos GILOPEZ KABAYAO, playing the violin and occasionally the piano, has opened musical vistas they would not otherwise have known. Son of a prosperous doctor-farmer, he learned first to play the violin from his father and the piano from his mother. Eventually training under American, Italian and French masters, he became an international virtuoso, invited to perform with the Vienna and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras and at Town Hall in New York. Nevertheless his major effort since 1952 has been devoted to bringing fine music to his own people. From schools in Panay, Bicol and Mindanao, to cockpits in Negros and Romblon, improvised stages in Mountain Province, and a boxing ring in Cebu, he has purposefully given of his talent, often contributing the gate proceeds to community projects. 

GILOPEZ KABAYAO thinks of music as much more than entertainment. In a world that hardens men and women, he is convinced their callousness can be overcome by the “soothing, elevating, humanizing and divinifying power of music.” Accompanied on the piano sometimes by his mother or sister, this 42-year-old violinist has won a tremendous response from diverse audiences throughout the islands. Patiently, he has taught students wherever he goes the theory of music and encouraged them to play instruments. 

In their separate yet complementary ways these two gifted Filipinos have demonstrated that the quality of life can be enhanced for a people by individuals who care and who school their artistic talents to this purpose. 

In electing CECILE REYES GUIDOTE and GILOPEZ KABAYAO to share the 1972 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes their leadership in the renaissance of the performing arts, giving a new cultural content to popular life.

It is with a feeling both of nostalgia and appreciation that I accept this Award: appreciation for the honor to be chosen in this field which has been and will always be close to me— something which has been and will forever be part of my life; nostalgia because this Award brings back to me vividly the experiences which are now behind me and memories of those who worked with me. I do not feel that I should relish this alone as I was not alone in my endeavor, my dreams, my desire to bring fine music, not only to the privileged few, but also to those less fortunate brothers who live in the far-flung hinterlands of our country, who have every right to share the beautiful experience of soul-enrichment through the fine music of our people as well as of the people of other lands. I cannot detach myself, especially at this high point of my career from the people who swept cockpit floors to accommodate our performances, from those who had to move their precious pianos through windows so we could perform for the public, from those who had to walk long distances and leave their farms to listen to our music, our brothers in Kona on the island of Hawaii, forgotten and deserted, but who will treasure in their few remaining years the sound of our folk music which they had not heard since they left the Philippines some 50 years ago. What greater motivation is there to bring music to these people than that inspired by those who believed and had faith that we would succeed? And we did! The few hours or even the few minutes of listening to our music gave them more than material things could contribute to their very humanity. 

Through my 20 years of struggle in an effort to bring good music to our people, I have seen how faith has pulled us through many difficulties and enabled us to influence peoples’ attitudes and change their indifference and skepticism to open-mindedness. 

Permit me to address myself to my younger sister Marcelita, who was my partner in my early pioneer work to condition barrio people to classical music; to my other dedicated piano accompanists, who have been far more than accompanists and who have shared the same spirit and enthusiasm, in spite of discomforts, to the countless organizations which have extended support to our projects; and to my whole family who, from my childhood, have never abandoned me in my dream and who selflessly supported me in this continuing effort. These gestures of self sacrifice have made wonderful beings of the many people we have met. These many acts of kindness made the difference between failure and success. I recognize all these as integral parts of my effort—and of whatever sense of accomplishment I now have. With all of them I would like to share this honor. 

As a result of our work which has spanned almost a generation, I have seen young people grow into mature adults with appreciation of fine music. Ours is a continuing crusade to expose our young people to the arts, to provide a balancing factor of the right types of music to give them the right tools with which to appreciate music and thus help them in developing a taste for the finer things in life. I hope that our school system will continue to emphasize music appreciation and that our media will give the people more time and more exposure toe fine music, for I strongly believe that it is essential in developing the sensitivity, awareness and compassion of an individual to others. 

I regret that I could not personally accept this Award from the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation as I presently have various engagements to fulfill in the continuing work for which I have been honored. I would like to acknowledge with appreciation this recognition by the Foundation. It has provided me with great reassurance and encouragement to pursue my work in bringing the fine music of the masters to our people as well as exposing our beautiful folk songs and music to international audiences. I consider this moment not a culmination but a fresh challenge. I accept this challenge with high hopes that my people will join me with great vigor in this unfinished task. With your continued help we can do more.

National and international efforts to spur Asian agricultural progress have left most ordinary farmers still to participate in the “green revolution.” Their reluctance to do so often does not result from ignorance or time-honored habits. Rather, they are unable to see the new technology as within their reach and compatible with their families economic survival. 

Indonesia illustrates the small cultivators’ dilemma. Farm families cultivating one-fourth to two hectares grow more than nine-tenths of all agricultural produce. Yet research, marketing facilities and frequently official priorities emphasize the needs of large commercial estates with more modern management. Bankers also find them a better risk. 

It is to this practical problem that 74-year-old HANS WESTENBERG actively applies himself at Kebun Djeruk—or Orange Plantation—as his 54-hectare farm is known at Tebing Tinggi, some 50 miles southeast of Medan, North Sumatra. Born in this province to a Dutch father and an Indonesian mother of the Karo Batak people, in the family tradition he studied in the Netherlands for the colonial civil service. Attracted instead to agriculture, he returned to Sumatra and in 1919 became a plantation manager. Although concerned chiefly with growing natural rubber, his early success with experimental intercropping on young plantations led him to encourage neighboring small farmers to adopt this practice. 

Two decades ago WESTENBERG bought Kebun Djeruk and in 1960 he “retired” there from the state-owned plantation company, Perusahan Negara Penerenpan where he had been employed. Half a century of experience has gone into his experiments since then, nearly all financed with income from the farm. 

Convinced that higher-yielding varieties are a “first key” to enhancing farmers’ income, WESTENBERG and cooperating farmers multiplied two and one-half kilograms of the International Rice Research Institute’s first new varieties, IR-8 and IR-5, to produce 800 tons of rice seed which was subsequently introduced by the military throughout Sumatra. Within two years this led to the planting on rainfed fields of a second rice crop worth now some US$10 million annually. He tested 500 types of sorghum and found one from Indiana suitable for Sumatra. Soya bean varieties from Australia, peanuts from Taiwan, corn varieties from Texas and the Super Mungo bean from the Philippines are among his introductions. In fishponds covering six hectares are grown Chinese carp which he sells to restaurants in Medan, while yield records from his fertilized dwarf coconuts promise seedlings for restoring the Indonesian copra industry. 

Sumatran farmers who come to learn by seeing the crops that grow best, buy seeds and pamphlets, and students, who live in the Kebun Djeruk ashrama while studying good farming techniques attest to WESTENBERG’s creative influence. Significant is the refusal of this pioneering Indonesian farmer to let fellow farmers buy seeds for a crop unless he has proven it can make money for them. WESTENBERG’s work is a heartening demonstration that private initiative can consequentially increase agricultural production when guided by a deep knowledge of all aspects of farming, a second sense of human nature and sustained personal effort. 

In electing HANS WESTENBERG to receive the 1972 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes his practical propagation of new crops and promotion of better methods among Sumatra’s small farmers who have learned to trust and profit from his ideas.

Standing before you as a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, I am intensely aware of the fact that this is the greatest Award and honor that can be given to a person in Asia. That this Award should be bestowed on me came as one of the biggest surprises of my life. I am overwhelmed with feelings of pride and gratitude. 

The question may be asked, and I asked myself many times, what have I done to deserve such a great honor? My personal opinion in this case is that throughout my life circumstances have been very much in my favor and have contributed substantially to the results that have followed from my work. It is thus not that in any way I am worthy of this Award, but rather that circumstances have prospered my activities and focused the attention of many people on the results. 

At my birth I inherited a great interest in agriculture from my mother. Then, from the moment I started work on rubber estates in November 1919, I have tried to solve the problems of increasing yields by introducing new varieties and methods of cultivation. This kind of work became my hobby and when one follows his hobby he is in truth simply doing what interests and satisfies him personally; this work, in fact, has proved of no great burden to me. 

What one person can do, however, is very limited and it has been my great fortune always to find others who had the same interest or who held important positions in society, willing to cooperate and assist me in the work of introducing new varieties and more advanced methods of cultivation into Indonesian agriculture. In most cases the new varieties and methods we have introduced have been based on the results of recent research carried out by agricultural scientists working in many countries. 

By applying the results of basic research, and with the assistance of those in influential positions and others in organizations interested in raising the standard of living of poor farmers, some worthwhile in certain instances substantial results have been obtained through our combined efforts. 

Thus, in receiving the Award I feel somewhat guilty, knowing that the Award should have been shared by many others who have assisted my work. I should like to mention a few of these people at this point in recognition of their efforts in supporting my activities: 

Our former Indonesian Ambassador to the Philippines, Major General Kusno Utomo, at that time Commander in Chief of the Indonesian Army in Sumatra, provided unstinting support and his Chief of Staff, Major General Josef Muskita, became the head of the project on our experimental farm for the multiplication of the new rice varieties developed in your country. For this operation I was appointed project manager. 

Professor Tan Hong Tong, at that time Director of the Research Institute of the Sumatra Planters Association; and R. C. Pickett of Purdue University, who helped me find a suitable variety of sorghum for our region. 

The staff of the Rockefeller Foundation and other research institutes who have helped me find high-yielding varieties of corn, soybeans, groundnuts, mungo beans and other crops. 

And last but not least, Rudy Ramp, formerly Deputy Director of CARE Indonesia, who played an important role in helping me establish a “Foundation for Indonesian Farming Development.” This Foundation, with the support of influential persons in various ministries of the Indonesian Government and in the business world, will, I hope and trust, continue to improve and extend our work in helping thousands of small farmers improve their economic circumstances. 

Perhaps you would like to know what use has been made of the Award money granted me. The money has been fully invested in a project to introduce sorghum into Indonesian agriculture. We have established drying, threshing and marketing facilities to service the small farmers and estates growing sorghum for the first time in our area, and are providing information and supervision, together with credits for fertilizer and seed, to the small farmers involved. 

Grain sorghum will surely become a new export crop and an important new basic food grain for domestic consumption because of its high protein content, high yield potential and drought resistance. I believe that it will become one of the most important crops planted by farmers cultivating dryland who have previously had to depend on less reliable crops for their existence. 

In conclusion I would like once again to express my gratitude for the honor bestowed on me as recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership and to convey my humble thanks to the Board of Trustees and Members of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for their generosity and hospitality.

Most of Asia’s democratically oriented countries are burdened with values borrowed from affluent societies in the West and Japan. Concerned with liberty, they also emphasize egalitarianism and welfare state concepts. Yet at this stage these developing countries usually lack adequate economic productivity to afford such programs. Recognizing this quandary, GOH KENG SWEE treats with iconoclastic courage and skepticism “all books on economics published since World War II.” Instead, he emphasizes that in developing countries no amount of foreign loans can compensate for cultivation of those virtues propounded by that 19th century Scottish essayist, Samuel Smiles: “thrift, industry, ambition, honesty, perseverance.”

The thinker who helped Singapore’s Peoples Action Party (PAP) make of these hard necessities a compelling political program was born 54 years ago in Malacca. A career civil servant for much of two decades, he also took time out to earn a doctorate at the London School of Economics. In 1958 he resigned from government service to join in building the PAP. The next year, when the PAP won the general election and control of the Singapore Government, GOH was elected a member of parliament and named Minister of Finance.

As keeper of the public purse, GOH’s task was unenviable; government finances were in a sorry state, reflecting dwindling trade and rising unemployment. By austere economics, including salary cuts for ministers and civil servants alike, he balanced the budget within the first year. From such savings were mustered funds to initiate, in 1960, Singapore’s massive public housing, expansion of education, construction of community centers and the start of the industrialization spurred by the new Economic Development Board.

Despite such dedicated leadership, Singapore’s survival was repeatedly threatened. Local leftists collaborated with Indonesia’s late President Sukarno in his konfrontasi to sabotage and militarily destroy the Federation of Malaysia that Singapore joined in founding in 1963. Separation from the Federation in 1965 left Singapore precariously isolated; a vulnerability compounded by the drastic reduction in Britain’s defense forces and expenditures “east of Suez.”

Throughout these vicissitudes, GOH, alternately Defense and Finance Minister, worked with rising young, government technocrats to realize the national dream of an industrialized, trading city-state. Jurong Town Corporation symbolizes this new Singapore. Covering 17,000 acres, it is being reclaimed from mangrove swamp, hills and prawn ponds. Already completed are a deepwater port and town pier, a railway, and roads and services—including water, drainage and electricity—for the rapidly rising factories and apartments. Also included are a 50-acre bird park, a town center with a 700-acre recreation area containing Chinese and Japanese gardens of world class, restaurants and other popular attractions.

With full employment and over one billion U.S. dollars in foreign reserves, Singapore’s economy continues to burgeon. Orchids and ornamental fish are airfreighted to Europe and Japan, large-scale poultry and swine growing now are complemented by hydroponic gardening, while the world’s supertankers are refitted nearby and industrial exports become more sophisticated. All are visible proof of a philosopher-official’s sound planning.

In electing GOH KENG SWEE to receive the 1972 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes him as chief economic architect in transforming Singapore during the 1960s into Southeast Asia’s most industrially and socially vibrant state, where all benefit from prosperity.

There is reputed to be an old and wise Chinese proverb which says, “we cannot help the birds of sadness flying over our heads, but we need not let them build their nests in our hair.” Tender and subtle as the saying may be, its message is clear and relevant. It calls upon us to ensure that our minds are not submerged in pessimism in the face of the arduous task of development. At the same time it acts as a little expression of hope that we must carry with us as we pace our way through what Professor Gunnar Myrdal has aptly called “the Asian Drama.”

The hope that we carry with us must, however, be based on a solid commitment: a commitment to build a just, equal and prosperous society for all of us. It has been my belief that there are no easy solutions to the numerous problems that all of us encounter in the developing world. As I have said on previous occasions, and as the Board of Trustees of this Award have kindly reminded me, the virtues that we need to cultivate in ourselves are the simple virtues propounded by the 19th century Scottish essayist, Samuel Smiles: “thrift, industry, ambition, honesty and perseverance.” Simple as they may be, they can form the bedrock for a consolidated national effort. I hope that I am not being too bold if I say that Ramon Magsaysay’s life in many ways portrayed these simple and yet enduring qualities.

Carlos P. Romulo, in his inspiring biography of Ramon Magsaysay, said that from his village Magsaysay carried his native earthiness, deep-seated honesty, capacity for hard work, and disarmingly naive sense of country humor into the highest office of the land. Out of these simple qualities Ramon Magsaysay created a life of dedication and devotion to the task of nation-building that will long be a rich source of inspiration for many of us in Asia. To receive an award in the name of such a man is indeed a great honor.

In all fairness I must share this honor with colleagues of mine, all of whom have tried to encourage and emulate the qualities of dedication and devotion that Ramon Magsaysay has inspired.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award will also undoubtedly spur all of us in Singapore toward our aim of bringing about a more just and equal society, wherein every citizen will have the right to live in liberty and happiness and be given equal opportunities and education for a better life. The recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Award over the last 14 years have come from various parts of Asia and the world.

The Award weaves a common theme into the various endeavors of government and community leaders, teachers and social workers, journalists and artists, all of whom are striving in their own way to make this world a better place to live in. By spreading the name and spirit of Ramon Magsaysay over the world, the Board of Trustees is making a valuable contribution to understanding between nations of Southeast Asia.

It is my hope that the Award will continue to symbolize the ideals that Ramon Magsaysay exemplified and act as a beacon of hope for the developing world as well as promote a spirit of international understanding.