The raga, Indians say, is music that colors the mind. Rising from the deep well of Hindu civilization, the well-rendered melody of a raga can convey ecstasy and sorrow, sunlight and rain, dawn and twilight—any mood in man or woman, or in nature. It resonates with India’s past and, in its infinite and subtle variations, imparts the complex truth of India itself. The raga, says RAVI SHANKAR, “is the heart of our music.” Yet few can master it, and fewer still can reveal its beauty to those outside India. RAVI SHANKAR has mastered the raga. And on the sitar, he plays ragas for the world.

RAVI SHANKAR was born in 1920 to a Bengali Brahmin family. As a boy he followed his older brother, Uday Shankar, to Paris where Uday was forming Europe’s first Indian dance company. Here young RAVI gathered what few shards of formal education he was to possess and, on his own, pored through the classic Indian stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata and the modern works of Rabindranath Tagore. Joining in the work of the troupe, he became an acclaimed solo dancer and a competent player of the sitar, sarod, bamboo flute, and the drums. He moved in the orbit of Europe’s best young musicians and traveled in Europe, England, and America.

At the age of eighteen, RAVI SHANKAR abandoned this heady life and returned to India. Shaving his head and accepting the stern rules of discipleship, he placed himself under a renowned master of the sitar, Ustad Allauddin Khan. He became his teacher’s favorite pupil, married his daughter, and, after seven and a half years of ceaseless study, struck out for Bombay to establish his career.

Persevering through lean years, RAVI SHANKAR became a versatile professional musician, performing in recitals the classical ragas learned under his guru, but also creating new music for dance, radio and films. He composed hundreds of songs in both the folk and classical traditions for All India Radio, and won acclaim for his ballet-opera based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India and his film scores for Satyajit Ray’s seminal Apu trilogy.

RAVI SHANKAR began performing the sitar internationally in 1956, attracting audiences that grew over the years from a handful of overseas Indians to large cosmopolitan crowds that filled the premier concert halls of New York and London. He was driven, he said, to make Indian music intelligible to non-Indian audiences. Patiently, and with wit, he explained his music before he played it. With Westem musicians he initiated an East-West dialogue, performing alongside virtuosos such as Yehudi Menuhin and Jean-Pierre Rampal. Through the Beatles, sounds of the sitar gained celebrity in the global mass culture of electronic music. In time RAVI SHANKAR became a celebrity himself, sharing his music in gala international concert tours and more than a hundred recorded albums.

Although a brilliant innovator, in concert with the sitar RAVI SHANKAR remains a purist and adheres strictly to the fixed form of the raga. The remarkable spontaneity of his playing, the complex, psychological undertones that make his music feel so modern—these effects are achieved through improvisations that occur wholly within the raga’s traditional framework. Where the raga is concerned, says one admirer, RAVI SHANKAR is “a thorough grammarian.” Yet his stunning interpretations have helped to restore classical Indian music to robust popularity in India and to inspire a new generation of disciples.

In electing RAVI SHANKAR to receive the 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, the Board of Trustees recognizes his enriching India and the world with his sublime mastery of the sitar and with music “that colors the mind.”

I am overwhelmed by the great honor bestowed upon me by the conferment of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 1992 in the field of Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts. The award is doubly valuable to me because it has been instituted in the name of one of your great national leaders and, being an Asian award, is a reaffirmation of the bonds that link all of us Asians. I therefore, am delighted to accept this award, which I shall always cherish as a symbol of the love and nobility of the Filipino people.

The spirit behind the Ramon Magsaysay awards is, in fact, analogous to the spirit that has been a guiding force behind my work in the field of music. As in the case of the Awards, my work in music too has been motivated by a search for excellence and by an effort to build bridges of friendship the world over. Through music, I have attempted in my own modest way to create a better appreciation of India and to demonstrate that the unity of mankind transcends all differences of race, religion, language, etc. I do sincerely believe that it is only through the realization of this oneness of humanity that we can build a better world in which to live, free from all conflicts and destructive tendencies.

With these few words, I would once again like to thank the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation trustees for the great honor bestowed upon me.

The warm shallow seas of island Southeast Asia host one of the planet’s most productive natural systems. Coral reefs are nurseries for sea life of an astonishing variety and abundance, providing livelihood for fisherfolk and food for millions. But humans have preyed too hard upon the reefs.

Today, in the Philippines, 70 percent have been damaged or destroyed by predatory exploitation and pollution, and none has escaped harm. We now know that we must save what can be saved; this requires prudent restraint. But how can we rehabilitate what has been badly damaged, and bring back to vitality what has very nearly been lost? This task requires the practical application of science and has been the life’s work of marine ecologist ANGEL C. ALCALA.

A child of the sea-bathed Visayan Islands, ALCALA marveled at the wonders of coral reefs long before he understood them. At Silliman University he took up biology and pursued it through a doctorate at Stanford University. Returning to the Philippines, he made his career at Silliman, advancing in 1991 to become the school’s president.

As a young scientist ALCALA taught zoology, anatomy and botany to Silliman’s students and explored the local rainforests for undiscovered varieties of reptiles and amphibians. In 1974 he established the Silliman University Marine Laboratory. Based here, and working in collaboration with his research colleagues and students, ALCALA embarked on pathbreaking research.

On the island of Sumilon, ALCALA established his country’s first marine sanctuary. Here he observed that a healthy coral reef can yield sea life six times greater than previously thought possible. Moreover, ALCALA’s research revealed that if just one fourth of a reef is protected, the rest can be used as a fishing zone, providing a sustainable livelihood for nearby coast dwellers. When Sumilon’s reef was badly plundered after losing its protected status, ALCALA learned another lesson: Involve local people! On Apo Island, Silliman’s team worked hand-in-hand with local fishing families from the beginning; today the university has withdrawn and the people manage the restored reef themselves. These hopeful findings are now being put into practice throughout the Philippines. “This is my vision,” says ALCALA, “a series of marine reserves in all the islands, all contributing to keeping the surrounding seas healthy.”

Keeping the seas healthy and bountiful for growing numbers of Filipinos has been the object of much of ALCALA’s research. He built the Philippines’ first artificial reef, now a model for dozens of others. He induced the near-extinct giant clam and Philippine crocodile to reproduce in captivity and developed breeding programs for other valuable sea animals. He monitored the health of fish, corals, seagrasses and mangroves throughout the central Visayas and taught coastal communities how to increase the productivity of precious shallow waters. He studied the effects of pollution on marine organisms. As he learned, he also spoke out.

ALCALA is a conservationist who gets the facts first. Based on thorough research, he defended Negros Island’s surviving patch of virgin rainforest from hydro-electric dams and tourism and helped to evict commercial seaweed producers from the unique Tubbataha reef—now the Philippines’ first national marine park. ALCALA’s forceful and reasoned public stand for the environment is unwelcome in some quarters. But this down-to-earth scientist who prefers the sea’s breezes to air conditioning carries on fearlessly nevertheless, mindful of the Bible’s teaching that, “We are the stewards of Creation.”

ln electing ANGEL C. ALCALA to receive the 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his pioneering scientific leadership in rehabilitating the coral reefs of the Philippines and in sustaining for Filipinos the natural abundance of their country’s marine life. 

There are wonderful surprises that come our way, at one time or another, in our life. And to me this prestigious award is the greatest and most wonderful surprise of all.

I wish to thank the officers of the Magsaysay Award Foundation, particularly those who even began to think of me as deserving of this award to honor the great Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay. I also thank my numerous colleagues, friends, admirers, fellow ecologists, and conservationists for their kind words of congratulations. In my many years of painstaking research—of going deep into our forests and undertaking marine life conservation—a prestigious award of this kind was way beyond my wildest dreams.

I also wish to thank my wife Naomi and our children, whose loving support and understanding allowed me to be away from home for lengths of time pursuing my love of field research, spearheading conservation projects, and attending gatherings of scholars around the world.

I am grateful to Silliman University and Stanford University, which have given me excellent training in my chosen field of biology. And, of course, I thank my many research colleagues and the funding agencies that have made possible what the Magsaysay Award Foundation has perceived to be my achievements.

I hope that the recognition of my life’s work by the foundation serves to boost the morale of many of my fellow biologists and researchers, as well as dedicated teachers who work in relative obscurity.

On this occasion, I think of the great Silliman motto: Via, Veritas, Vita, particularly the word Veritas. I like to think that I’ve been given this award because of my passionate search for biological Truth. Indeed, I think I’ve done this search for Truth the way the great biologist Thomas Huxley described serious study: Sit down before a fact like a little child. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and whatever depths nature leads. Otherwise you shall learn nothing.

But I also like to think that while I have learned truth in abundance, I have also made it my preoccupation to do the truth, to pursue its practice, to apply what I have learned, particularly in the areas of environmental enrichment and conservation of our nation’s natural wealth.

Indeed, I am highly honored that I am awarded for trying to know and do the truth. At the same time, however, I wish to confess, on behalf of all sincere environmentalists and conservationists, that our endeavors have not been sufficient to stem the tide of human error that has caused such tragedies as Ormoc, the deterioration of our marine life, the denudation of our forest reserves, and the annihilation of what we possess in abundance. In short, the alarming and wanton destruction of our natural resources.

So on this occasion of honor and celebration, allow me to express a warning and a challenge to all of us, Filipinos and Asians: that unless we move fast to put a stop to the rape of our natural resources, we will remain poor, destitute, pitiful, and even become worse off. If the environmental destruction continues without letup, it will be our children and our children’s children who will reap the tragic consequences.

My friends, we now find ourselves at the crossroads between poverty and prosperity. Our future is only as good as what we make of the present. 

To Gilgit, Chitral and Baltistan, merchants on the Silk Road to China once brought trade, news of the world, and Islam. But by the 1970s global shifts had rendered these high mountain regions Pakistan’s remotest districts. Lost behind the ranges, their hardy farmers and herdsmen survived by wresting sustenance from a stingy and progressively degraded habitat. They faced bleak prospects when, in 1978, the Karakorum Highway renewed their links to the outside world and exposed them to the forces of Pakistan’s modern economy “down country.” Stepping in to help them catch up, and to channel outside forces to the good, was. the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme and its able general manager SHOAIB SULTAN KHAN.

As a young civil service officer, KHAN learned from Akhter Hameed Khan that democratic village institutions can empower the rural poor to become masters of their own development. He adapted his mentor’s insights to mountain communities in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier and in Sri Lanka, where he lived in a forest village to help UNICEF devise an effective social development program for rural settlers. He was thus an experienced development administrator when, in December 1982, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme asked him to introduce income generating activities to nearly a million people in Pakistan’s vast and rugged northern areas.

KHAN believes that physical infrastructure projects provide the best catalysts for collective decision making and accountability in poor, rural communities. In his initial dialogues with villagers, therefore, he explained that the Programme would give each village a one-time-only grant for such a project — but on certain conditions. The villagers must choose the project collectively and it must benefit everyone; they must form an organization to plan, build, and maintain the project; they must meet regularly with everyone present; and they must make systematic contributions to a common fund so that there would be savings and collateral to help meet future needs.

As projects got underway, KHAN’s staff members carefully monitored the construction of each new irrigation channel and link road, and funnelled equipment, supplies, and essential expertise to the village builders. And as new land was opened to irrigation, KHAN urged villagers on to the next stage. “The sooner you develop the land,” he told them, “the sooner you will benefit.” To help, the Programme introduced new strains of plants, taught villagers new skills, and encouraged the region’s illiterate and ever-toiling women to assert themselves and participate in collective initiatives of their own.

To date, more than one thousand local projects funded by the Programme have brought 20,000 hectares of new land under cultivation. Seven thousand villagers have been trained as managers, accountants, and specialists in farming, animal husbandry, forestry and marketing. Local organizations in some 1,400 mountain villages now manage livelihood projects, generate capital, and conserve local resources. Millions of trees supplied by the Programme anchor the thin mountain soil and yield apricots and apples for selling “down country,” as well as fuel and timber for the future. The hills are alive with a new and confident spirit.

As his working method attracts the attention of other development workers world-wide, KHAN’s vision is spreading. Meanwhile, the amiable and gentle KHAN spends much of his time walking and talking with villagers. In this way he reminds his staff that at the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme the needs of villagers come first, and that the heart of any successful development effort lies not in the office but in the field.

In electing SHOAIB SULTAN KHAN to receive the 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes his nurturing self-reliant development and bringing hope to the forgotten peoples of high Pakistan. 

My mentor and teacher, Akhter Hameed Khan, received the Magsaysay Award nearly three decades ago. It was not in my wildest dreams that I would one day follow in his footsteps to this august ceremony. I learned the art of rural development at his feet in the late fifties and continue to benefit from his vision and deep insight until today. It is to Akhter Hameed Khan that I owe my understanding of the theory and practice of rural development.

In my career of nearly four decades, I have had three benefactors: the Government of Pakistan; the United Nations (particularly UNICEF); and His Highness, the Aga Khan. The last one, with whom I have now been associated for a decade, gave me a long-term perspective and inspired guidance, commitment, and dedication to the cause of eradicating poverty. The Aga Khan evinces a level of interest and gives the kind of support that I have never had before, to do the type of work I want to do for the rural poor. His Highness truly made my dream come true. The decision this month by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to extend the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) to the whole of Pakistan, through a National Rural Support Programme patterned after AKRSP, is a direct result of His Highness’s desire that AKRSP develop a replicable model of rural development, as it improves the standard of living of the people of the Northern Areas of Pakistan.

To my colleagues in the Aga Khan Foundation in Geneva, Pakistan, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, I owe special thanks for helping AKRSP in every possible way, as I do to the Aga Khan Development Network and the donors of AKRSP in the governments of Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, the European Union, Germany, United States, Norway, and various foundations, namely OXFAM, Konrad Adenauer, and Ford. The Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank, through its two interim evaluations of AKRSP, gave the program a great impetus and global acceptability.

The support I received from my well wishers in Pakistan and abroad and my erstwhile colleagues in the government of Pakistan, the administration of North West Frontier Province and the Northern Areas, and a score of other agencies contributed tremendously to the development of AKRSP.

However, the people who made AKRSP possible are the workers of the program, who have been performing their duties, over a sustained period of time, with a sense of dedication and sincerity rarely found in most organizations. Their acceptance of the primacy of the village organization and their willingness to listen to and respect the views of the rural poor are the greatest strengths of AKRSP. Above all, it is to the people of the Northern Areas and of the Chitral District of Pakistan that the full credit for the achievements of AKRSP must go. It is they who responded so positively to the terms of partnership offered by AKRSP and fulfilled their obligations of organization, human resource development, and capital formation, the three cardinal principles on which AKRSP is based. It is the workers of AKRSP and the people of the program area who truly deserve the honor the award has bestowed on me.

I am sorry that my wife is not present here to share with me this moment of glory because she has made and continues to make the greatest personal sacrifice to enable me to work in a remote and isolated region, comprising the program area. I wish my daughters Roohi, Afshan, and Shelley and her husband Tim, and my grandchildren Sarah and Amil, were also here. But the one person whom my wife and I miss most on such occasions is our daughter Falaknaz, who died nearly four years ago with her two children in a gas suffocation tragedy at Islamabad. She would have been the happiest to see her daddy receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which I accept with the greatest humility and with profuse thanks to the trustees of the Magsaysay Foundation.

The world economy, as we are so often reminded these days, is borderless: the free flow of capital, technology, knowledge, and even labor can be restrained by protective governments only in part, and only for so long. Indeed, it now seems clear that Asia’s rising tide of prosperity depends on its ability to compete in the world. Grasping this truth decades ago, WASHINGTON SYCIP led his consulting company to preeminence by keeping it abreast of international standards, and by helping others in Asia do the same. In doing so, he fostered professionalism among the region’s new generation of managers and helped introduce a new basis for mutual respect and cooperation.

Born in the Philippines in 1921, SYCIP rose through the public school system excelling from first to last. At fifteen he entered university; by twenty he was a Certified Public Accountant. Pursuing a masters degree at Columbia University when war broke out, he served with the United States Army in India and Burma. At war’s end he returned to Manila and launched his accounting firm.

With a partner, Alfredo Velayo, SYCIP worked doggedly to build up a clientele, making ends meet by teaching accounting in the afternoons and returning to the office for more work at night, and on Sundays. The company prospered and grew. Merger with another firm in 1953 made them ‘SyCip, Gorres and Velayo,’ or SGV—the name that stuck.

As managing partner, SYCIP found a place for SGV helping Philippine companies get off the ground in the crucial decades after the war. Realizing these embryonic businesses needed more than accounting and tax services, he recruited specialists of all kinds and placed them at the service of an increasingly wide range of clients. Their success was his success. SGV became the largest consulting firm in the Philippines.

In partnership with professional colleagues in Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and elsewhere, SYCIP built the pan-Asian SGV Group, beginning in 1964. He sent his best managers to strengthen the new affiliates and groomed the latent executive talent in neighboring countries to be world-class managers. Learning was the key. In-house training was an SGV hallmark; but SYCIP also encouraged his young proteges to seek advanced degrees abroad. As a result, the SGV Group’s consultants outpaced the competition in the Philippines and the rest of Asia.

SYCIP himself exemplified the excellence of his company and became much in demand as an adviser and board member to corporations, educational institutions, and professional organizations around the world. In these positions he won respect for Asian business and, at the same time, steered new investments to Asia and to the Philippines. Indeed, despite US citizenship, SYCIP has for decades been one of his native country’s most effective private ambassadors and institution builders. He led in establishing the Asian Institute of Management, now the region’s premier business school, and has been its board chairman from the beginning. Moreover, through his participation in founding Philippine Business for Social Progress and, recently, Philippine Business for the Environment, he has engaged the Philippine business community in meaningful acts of social responsibility.

Today, 71-year-old SYCIP is a restless frequent flyer who raises his voice the world round on behalf of the Philippines, Asian business, and mutual cooperation. “From government on down to individuals,” he reminds us,”our future prospects are a function of how effectively we can act together.”

In electing WASHINGTON SYCIP to receive the 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes his fostering economic growth and mutual understanding in Asia through professionalism, public-spirited enterprise, and his own esteemed example.

I am indeed honored to be the recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. This award is particularly meaningful for me as I had the privilege of knowing President Magsaysay. Let me just narrate two incidents that show how quickly he acted when projects would help those most in need.

My father approached him with the idea of providing artesian wells for rural areas where safe drinking water was not available. President Magsaysay enthusiastically endorsed the idea and actually transferred some U.S. government assistance funds for these wells. These were then called the “liberty wells.” Many friends donated funds for such wells on their birthday or on other occasions when they would have otherwise spent the money for a luxurious dinner.

On another occasion, I brought a director of Carnation, who was interested in setting up a milk plant, to see President Magsaysay. He said, “This will lower the cost of milk and will benefit the masses so you can start building the plant immediately!” Right then and there, he called the Central Bank and gave instructions to get the project going.

President Magsaysay was returning to Manila from Cebu on a Saturday evening to attend a lunch the following day given by Mr. Yulo in Canlubang for Harold Helm, chairman of Chemical Bank. Having been a close friend of the Bank for many years, I was taking Harold Helm to Canlubang on that tragic Sunday morning when the car radio carried the news that the president’s plane was missing. During the very sad lunch, information was received that the president did not survive the crash.

The Philippines lost a great man. But all of us are thankful that the Rockefeller family set up the Ramon Magsaysay Awards to give further meaning to the life of a man who did so much for his country.

In Asia, we realize, the trappings of democracy must often come before the substance of democracy. This has certainly been the experience of Southeast Asia, where elected officials have long occupied a conspicuous place on the national stage, but where real power often lies with others who stand well beyond the reach of voters.

The process of achieving democracy can be painfully slow in such circumstances, and is easily frustrated. And since few political actors are wholly immune to intrigues, or to greed and power-seeking, sometimes it is the behavior of elected officials themselves that discredits the democratic alternative. Yet, if elected leaders are no better than military strongmen or domineering party bosses, why should people take the risk of insisting on democracy?

As the elected governor of Bangkok and a champion of democratic reforms in Thailand, CHAMLONG SRIMUANG has renewed hope among Thais that the risk is worth taking.

Son of an immigrant Chinese fish vendor, CHAMLONG rose in life by dint of discipline and ambition. He worked his way through high school and achieved admission to the Royal Thai Military Academy, graduating in 1960. As a military officer he served in Laos and Vietnam, and at the Armed Forces Supreme Command in Thailand. He studied management abroad. Chosen in 1980 to become executive secretary to Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanond, he stepped down a year later to oppose an impending law that he disapproved of on moral grounds; but he remained with the army and was promoted to major general. In 1985, when constitutional reforms made the governorship of Bangkok an elected post, he resigned and launched his first political campaign.

Drawing on the teachings of an austere sect of Buddhism which he practices, CHAMLONG placed moral issues at the center of his election campaign. No vote buying. No smearing of rivals. No compromising political contributions. He mobilized his followers into a new party which he later named Palang Dharma, or Moral Force. And, against the odds, he won.

As governor, CHAMLONG brought order and cleanliness to Bangkok’s streets, canals, and public markets. He tackled the city’s crippling floods and traffic. He improved life for the city’s poorest. Saying, “a selfish person throws garbage everywhere,” he exhorted Bangkok’s six million citizens to make sacrifices for the common good. He taught them that small human actions, if practiced widely by citizens, can have a huge public impact. Refusing his salary and turning his back on other perquisites of office, CHAMLONG set the example himself. He lived simply, dressed simply, and ate only one vegetarian meal a day. To make a point, he took up a broom and swept the streets.

CHAMLONG swept his government clean too. Less corruption meant more money for city services. So did vigorous tax collection. “I suggest sincerity and hard work,” he said, and practiced what he preached. This astonished his constituents who re-elected him in a landslide victory in 1990.

In March 1992 CHAMLONG’s Palang Dharma party won 32 of Bangkok’s 35 seats in Thailand’s parliament, making him a national force. When, a few months later, the country’s chief military commander assumed the office of prime minister, 57-year-old CHAMLONG pitted his moral authority against the brute strength of the state. With a stunning act of non-violent protest that prompted his arrest, he galvanized the public to reject the unelected leader. Thailand’s King intervened personally to effect his release and to foster a peaceful resolution to the crisis favoring greater democracy for Thailand.

In electing CHAMLONG SRIMUANG to receive the 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his exemplary governorship of Bangkok and his fervent insistence that elections are the sole legitimate path to political power in Thailand.

It is indeed a great honor for me to be selected and invited to receive the Magsaysay Award today. 

President Magsaysay was a very a courageous person who worked with great honesty and devotion for the Philippines all his life. This Foundation has established this award in the name of this great president of the Philippines not only to honor him but to remind everyone of his magnificent performance as a public servant. This Award inspires great determination and willpower among professionals to follow in his footsteps, and work with honesty and devotion toward the growth and development of the nations in this region. So I am deeply pleased to have succeeded in his ideal of working for one’s country with great dedication.

I never expected to become a reputable politician or to pursue popularity and fame. I work with the sense of responsibility of an ordinary man being a member of the community who serves the public in order to create a better society.

My success in performing my duties and responsibilities as the governor of Bangkok derives from the remarkable cooperation of the officials of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the citizens of Bangkok Metropolis. They deserve all the credit for this award. No development project can succeed without the cooperation of the public. The public must do its part from the beginning to the end of each project. I am just a part of the development process.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation board of trustees and everyone who had a hand in giving me this great honor. Once again, I confirm my determination to serve the public with great honesty and devotion in order to create a better society for the future.