Ramon Magsaysay Award 2022 honours people from varied fields
As we all know, Nobel Prize is regarded as the highest honour in the field of academics. But do you know that there’s also an Asian version of the Nobel Prize and it is called the Ramon Magsaysay Awards? Recently, the awardees for the Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2022 were announced globally. This year, this honour has been conferred to psychiatrist Sotheara Chhim of Cambodia, paediatrician Bernadette Madrid of Philippines, ophthalmologist Tadashi Hattori of Japan and activist and filmmaker Gary Bencheghib of Indonesia.
The winners of Ramon Magsaysay 2022 Awards
This year, the 64th Ramon Magsaysay Award was conferred to four individuals from the fields of science, medicine and entertainment. Here’s a low-down on their contributions.
Sotheara Chhim
Hailing from Cambodia, he is a mental health advocate and the pioneer in treating Cambodian trauma syndrome popularly called ‘baksbat’ meaning ‘broken courage.’ It is a trauma-based cultural syndrome found in Cambodians who were victims of Khmer Rouge’s genocidal rule. As part of this post-traumatic stress disorder, people in Cambodia suffers from symptoms such as double fear, submissiveness, staying mute to problems and loss of togetherness. For those wondering about Khmer Rouge, it was a brutal regime under the leadership of Marxist dictator Pol Pot from 1975 to 1979 that resulted in the deaths of more than 2 million Cambodians. Just like Hitler, Pot too wanted his own countrymen to become the ultimate ‘master race’.
During his childhood, Chhim was forced into slavery as part of Khmer Rouge’s camps for more than three years until it was put to end in 1979. Since then, he has dedicated his life to help fellow Cambodians recover from this socio-political trauma. In fact, he was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for “his calm courage in surmounting deep trauma to become his people’s healer.” At present, this 54-year-old psychiatrist is the executive director of Cambodia’s Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation.
Tadashi Hattori
An ophthalmologist by profession, Hattori is regarded as the vision-saving humanitarian from Japan. As a 15-year-old, he had pledged to become a doctor in order to serve fellow humans when his cancer-stricken father didn’t receive proper medical assistance. Aged 58, Hattori received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for treating thousands of poor Vietnamese villagers free of cost. He has also been training the youth to continue his mission while raising funds, collaborating with experts and donating medical equipment to local hospitals.
Bernadette J. Madrid
A children’s rights crusader and paediatrician, Madrid was recognised by the RMAF for her “unassuming and steadfast commitment to the noble and demanding and her leadership in running a multisectoral, multidisciplinary effort in child protection that is admired in Asia.” She has provided medical, legal and social help to several Filipino kids and their families, especially the ones who have been abused or are the victims of trafficking, poverty and child labour. In fact, she had set up Philippines’ first child protection centre at the Philippines General Hospital at Manila in 1997 and has served millions of children since then. As of last year, Madrid had reached out to as many as 27,000 kids. She has also helped raise awareness about children’s rights by engaging and civic groups.
Gary Bencheghib
Stepping outside the shoes of a filmmaker, this French-born Indonesian turned into an environmental activist and raged an anti-plastic war in the Indonesian capital Bali. In fact, it was his efforts that led to the control of plastic pollution in all Indonesian waterbodies. He was lauded for an Emergent Leadership “to inspire fight against marine plastic pollution by combining weapons such as nature, adventure, video and technology.” His films are also based on the effects of plastic pollution and the importance of environmental protection. Notably, his 2017 documentary highlighting the pollution in Citarum River in West Java prompted the ruling government to initiate a seven-year rehabilitation programme. A champion of environment since his childhood, Bencheghib had begun his journey in the arena of environment protection with weekly beach clean-up along with his siblings. He still continues to work with them by deploying more than 170 trash barriers in polluted rivers across Bali and Java.
Ramon Magsaysay Awards: History and origin
Often regarded as the ‘Nobel Prize of Asia,’ the Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in 1957 by the trustees of New York-based Rockefeller Brothers Fund in collaboration with the Philippines government. First conferred in the year 1958, it is given in honour of Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay, Philippines’ third President, who had died an untimely death in a plane crash. He was a pioneer of integrity in governance, courageous service to people and pragmatic idealism in a democratic society.
The award is presented annually in a ceremony organised at Manila in Philippines on 31st August (birth anniversary of the Filipino President) and passed on to the winners on 30th November. Considered to be Asia’s greatest honour and distinction, it is awarded to the people of Asia for “greatness of spirit in selfless service and transformative influence; for providing the world with most successful solutions to some of the most challenging problems of human development.” It is managed by RMAF or Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation.
So far, more than 300 people have received this award that consists of a medallion (with a right side-facing profile image of Ramon Magsaysay) and a certificate. Earlier the award was given to individuals aged 40 years or above in six categories including Government Service; Public Service; Community Leadership; Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts; Peace and International Understanding and Emergent Leadership. However, since 2009, Ramon Magsaysay Award is no longer offered in any fixed categories, except the Emergent Leadership one. Mother Teresa, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi are some of the notable winners from India.