Teten among Magsaysay award winners

Teten among Magsaysay award winners

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Noted Indonesian antigraft campaigner Teten Masduki has been
named as one of the six recipients of this year's Ramon Magsaysay
awards, organizer announced on Monday.

The head of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) won the Magsaysay
public service award for "challenging Indonesians to expose
corruption and claim their right to clean government."

Established in 1957, the Magsaysay prize is often dubbed
Asia's version of the Nobel Prize.

"I've never dreamt of receiving this prestigious award as what
I've been doing is nothing extraordinary. I think everybody must
fight against corruption because this is our country's biggest
problem," he told The Jakarta Post from Medan, North Sumatra.

He was meeting prosecutors from the province to discuss the
antigraft campaign.

Teten plans to attend the annual awards ceremony on Aug. 31.
The awards are named after late Philippine president Ramon
Magsaysay.

Teten, who was born into a family of farmers, said that "I
plunged into the activist world" after joining a 1985
demonstration by local farmers whose land had been stolen, AP
reported.

In 1998, he volunteered to head Indonesia Corruption Watch,
which became a clearinghouse for information about corruption,
collusion and nepotism. Last year, the group examined 432 graft
cases causing an estimated loss to Indonesia of some US$580
million.

The other recipients of the Magsaysay awards are Thai senator
Jon Ungphakorn, Bangladesh journalist Matiur Rahman, Indian
physician V. Shanta, South Korea's Yoon Hye-Ran and Laotian
Sombath Somphone.

Ungphakorn won the Magsaysay award for government service for "his
impassioned insistence as a senator that Thailand respect the
rights and attend humanely to the needs of its least advantaged
citizens," the Magsaysay board of trustees said.

Rahman won the award for journalism, literature and creative
communication arts as the foundation praised "his wielding the
power of the press to crusade against acid throwing to stir
Bangladeshis to help its many victims."

Shanta, a second public service awardee, was honored for "her
untiring leadership of the Cancer Institute as a center of
excellence and compassion for the study and treatment of cancer
in India."

Yoon won the award for emergent leadership. The prize was for
"her catalytic role in enabling (her hometown) Chenoan's civil
society to exercise its social responsibilities dynamically and
democratically."

Somphone won the award for community leadership as he was
recognized for "his hopeful efforts to promote sustainable
development in Laos by training and motivating its young people
to become a generation of leaders."