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NEARLY
50 years and 260 awardees since its inception in 1958,
the all-Filipino board of trustees of the Ramon
Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) is set to release a
review of the RMAF for the past 50 years.
“This
50th anniversary is a milestone. We want to look at the
evolution of the RMAF, and perhaps help chart its
future,” said Dr. Cynthia Bautista, a former trustee of
the RMAF involved with the project, during a press
briefing on Thursday.
She said
this review was a step to “help find the leaders that
will shape Asia in the next 50 years.”
The
result of the analysis is dubbed “Asia’s Changing
Aspirations: 50 Years of the Magsaysay Award.”
Bautista
said in the course of their research, they discovered
many interesting details about the evolution of the
awards.
In the
1950s to 1960s, the “nation-building years,” the
foundation would award leaders who actually built
institutions or leaders in the most literal sense of the
word.
“These
were leaders of governments, directors of central
banks,” she said. “Today we have more humanitarians and
activists, including those who champion environmental
causes, which was not a very prominent problem in the
1960s.”
The
review is also meant to properly outline the very
definition of what a leader is for the future. She said
the foundation has come up with new archetypes among
many different kinds of leaders—humanitarian leaders,
public intellectuals, spiritual-movement leaders,
cultural workers, to name a few.
Finally,
the review aims to see if the RMAF has made the right
choices in its awardees and to see their impact in
society, which is what the awards are about in the first
place: “spreading the good news of Asia.”
The
review results will be formally presented on August 30,
but she hinted at some results with regard to their
choices, saying that they were pleased with the
awardees, and the impact they had on society.
“The
people we have chosen have exceptional spirit, and will
continue to do what they are doing, even without the
Magsaysay award,” she said.
The
year’s theme for the Ramon Magsaysay Awards is “Changing
Asia” and the awardees will be disclosed on August 1.
The categories for the awards are public service,
government service, community leadership, journalism,
literature and creative communication arts, peace and
international understanding, and emergent leadership. |
