‘Communists were brutally oppressed by ramon Magsaysay’

While K K Shailaja says she was chosen for the work that was a part of a collective effort, party cites history of person in whose honour award was created

Senior CPI(M) leader and former Kerala health minister K K Shailaja has declined to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for her contributions to preventing COVID-19 and Nipah virus. While Shailaja told reporters in Kerala that she was not interested in receiving the award in her individual capacity, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the award is in the name of the late Ramon Magsaysay, who has a history of alleged brutal oppression of Communists in the Philippines. 

Shailaja, a Central committee member of the CPI(M), took the decision after consulting the party’s national leadership.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established to honour the late Philippines president. File pic/AFP

“The NGOs may not be in favour of the communist ideology. Hence it was not right that I receive it as an individual because I was considered for something that was actually part of a collective effort. So, I decided not to accept the award. I thanked them and politely refused the award saying I was not interested in receiving it in an individual capacity,” Shailaja said.

“This is a collective effort of the LDF government and the Health Department in Kerala. So, this is not any individual effort,” Yechury said. 

Left leaders who spoke on the issue have claimed that Magsaysay was a staunch anti-Communist who oversaw the defeat of Communists in the Philippines in the 1950s.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund established the Magsaysay Award to honour the late Philippines president who died in March 1957. The award is given for contributions made by citizens of the Philippines and other Asian nations in government service, public service, international understanding, journalism and literature, and community leadership.

1957
Year the award was established

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