Indian Magsaysay awardee calls for youth volunteerism

The winner of the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, Dr. Sandeep Pandey of India, could not be bothered yesterday by protocol when he questioned the United States’ government role in global terrorism and later labeled the US the "biggest terrorist state" in the world.

It did not matter to US-educated Pandey that the head of the Rockefeller Brothers’ Fund (RBF), which helped create the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, was just one seat away from him.

Pandey, 37, youngest awardee in the leadership category, asked, "And what proof do they have that it’s Osama bin Laden who was behind the 9/11 attacks?"

Meanwhile, Pandey called on today’s youth to take a respite from the consumerist lifestyle and instead get into volunteerism. He urged the youth to "pursue a profession not for material reasons, but for something that would find you more meaning in life."

"The unidirectional race for amassing wealth is making us more self-centered and narrow in our outlook," he said

Pandey emphasized that he and the group that he assisted to organize, Asha (Hope) for Education, "do not support the unilateral attacks of the big powers on Afghanistan," referring to the US and Britain.

Pandey, who received a doctorate in mechanical engineering (control theory) at the University of California in Berkeley, said however that he indeed supports a fight against international terrorism that has the "approval of other countries in the world."

"The US should also realize the sovereignty of smaller countries," he later told reporters.

During a press conference of this year’s awardees at the Asian Library of the Ramon Magsaysay Center, tension was apparent due to Pandey’s statements criticizing the US.

To counter the Indian awardee’s statements, the president of the RBF, Stephen Heintz, said in a deliberate, soft voice, "I may not agree with the expressions (uttered) here, but I respect (them). We do need to understand the interdependence of nations. 9/11 reaffirmed the commitment to promote the global culture of peace and understanding."

Carmencita Abella, president of the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, said she was not bothered by Pandey’s comments. "This is an apolitical award and everybody is free to express his own opinion."

Pandey’s provocative statements were in response to a reporter’s question on the awardees’ ideas about the coming first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the US.

Joining Pandey in his reprimand of the US was Sukao Choi (Venerable Pumnyun Snim), a South Korean Buddhist monk, who was the awardee for peace and international understanding.

Snim said the US pronouncement branding North Korea as one of the three "axis of evil" did not help improve efforts by volunteers to bridge the gap between the two Koreas. – With Sheila Crisostomo