My First and Final Years at Rangoon Medical College

Dr Maung Maung Nyo

Preamble

During our days, the medical school started from the 2^nd MBBS and the intermediate years spent at the Rangoon University was equivalent to First MBBS. So, my caption may sound ambiguous as there was no first year MBBS either at Mandalay or Rangoon. What I meant was my initial or starting year spent at the Rangoon Medical College or the Faculty of Medicine, University of Rangoon in Lanmadaw. Here also, Lanmadaw is not meant to be a street, it’s a township. The name of the road in front of the Medical College was called the Godwin Road, now Myoma Kyaung Lan (Myoma School Road).

(Faculty of Medicine, Rangoon OR Rangoon Medical College,

Lanmadaw, Myoma Kyaung Lan, Godwin Road)

Drama of Denial to Transfer

It was in June 1959 and we had moved from Mandalay to Rangoon to put up the admission forms at the Rangoon Medical College. U San Tin, the head clerk in charge of student affairs, told us that the Mandalay students were not accepted in Rangoon. We asked him why and we liked to see the Dean. The Dean at the time was Dr U Maung Gale, retired Director (now equivalent to Director-General) of Health, and part-time Professor of Hygiene and Public Health. He went to the Dean’s room, came back and said the Dean would see us. We comprised about 4 or 5 people. I remember Than Aung, Hla Maung, Sadrul Hla Maung, Khin Mya Thwin, and Ma Than Yin. They all asked me to speak for them. We entered the Dean’s Room and saw U Maung Gale writing.He was translating Gray’s Anatomy in Burmese, a monumental task.

He looked at us and asked,” What can I do for you, students?” I answered, “We liked to transfer back to Rangoon, Sir.” He replied,” We’re instructed not to accept Mandalay Students here. I cannot accept you.” “But, Sayagyi, we were never Mandalay University students. We’re Branch Faculty of Medicine students that you sent us to Mandalay. Now that it’s going to belong to the Mandalay University, we chose to come back to Rangoon, Sir.” “Yes, what you said is true. But I cannot disobey the Government’s instruction. What you can do is you go and see the Rector at the Rangoon University. If he says yes, I’ll accept all of you.”

“Thank you, Sayagyi. We’ll now go to him and get his opinion”, I replied.

“Good, come back and report to me.”

(Convocation Hall, Rangoon University)

Rector of Rangoon University Sympathizes With Students

We then took a bus, the number 9 on the corner of Godwin Road and Prome Road and proceeded to the Convocation Hall, Rangoon University, about 5 or 6 miles away on the bank of Inya Lake. It took about half an hour. My friends asked me to lead them as Khin Mya Thwin and I were the only ones who had been in Rangoon before as the Special Premedical Class students three years before. We walked from the bus stop at Hle Dan, Kamayut, along the Chancellor Road to the Convocation Hall where the Rector Office was. We later found that there was another bus stop near Inya Lake close to the Convocation Hall. We were rather anxious to miss it.

(Thit-Poke-Pin In front of Administration Building and Faculty of Science,

Chancellor Road, University of Rangoon)

Rector Dr Htin Aung was abroad and U Pho Tha, Professor of Chemistry, was Acting Rector. We did not see him at the Rector’s Office and we went to his Chemistry Department. We met him without any difficulty.

He smiled and asked us,” Any problem?” I replied,” No problem, Sir; We came here just for your clarification. We’re the Branch Medical Faculty students coming to Rangoon to put up admission forms at Rangoon Medical College. Dean Sayagyi U Maung Gale asked us to seek your opinion for our admission, Sayagyi.” “Oh, that’s no problem. He is the Dean and he can admit all of you. Why did he give trouble to you? Go back and tell him he can admit all of you. I’ll also tell him by phone too.” So saying, he tried to call.”

(Inya Lake on the Back of Convocation Hall, Rangoon University)

We were very happy and said to him, “Thank you very much, Sayagyi.” Then, we went back to Lanmadaw with euphoria and reported to the Dean Sayagyi U Maung Gale. He was smiling when he saw us coming and told us that he would accept all the BMF students in Rangoon. I think U Pho Tha had given him green light. Rangoon University at the time was an autonomous body and no one could interfere with her. On hearing this some students who were staying behind in Mandalay to wait for the situation came down to Rangoon at once to join the Rangoon Medical College and only a few students in clinical years were left behind in Mandalay like John Noi, Maung Kaung, Ma San Yi etc. They graduated MBBS (Mandalay).

Hostel Problem

After getting the class admission at Rangoon Medical College we’re faced with the problem of hostel. The Lanmadaw Hostel for medical students was full. “No more accommodation there”, U San Tin told us. “You may try outside accommodation like others,” he advised us. We therefore went to the 19^th Street and Latter Street to look for private accommodation, but none was available. There was a Latha Street Medical Students’ Hostel that was soon to be demolished. So, we went to Hledan, Kamayut. We found a two-storied semi-brick house for about Kyats 600 (About US $ 100) per month for rent. It could accommodate 6 persons, but we had to arrange our selves, food, laundry, electricity and transport etc. We would not be able to read if we had to do all this.

All of us agreed to go back to the Dean for any available accommodation. We saw Sayagyi U Ko Gyi. He was the Chief Warden and Assistant to the Dean for Hostel Affairs. He was very sympathetic to us. He told us, “Yes, I have sympathy for all of you. I’ll ask the Dean not to relinquish the Latha Hostel this year to accommodate the students. I’ll advise the girl students to live in the main halls at Rangoon University for the time being. When the September Batch for Final part II students finish their exam, they may come back to Simpson Road Hostel.” Thus we all were accommodated at the run-down Latha Street Hostel.

So, Sayagyi U Ko Gyi arranged for us to live in the Latha Hostel (Latha means Latter Street.)and he provided cooks, cleaners and watch men etc. Water and electricity were also restored fully. He asked us to form a Social and Reading Club to run the meals, newspapers, sports etc. There were about 150 students. We Mandalay people accounted for about 80.The rest were equally divided between the Tat-U (Students United Front, SUF) and Clean or Unattached Students (Thee Thant) and Democrat Student Organisation (DSO) that we regarded as pro-government.

The Tat-U students came to me and asked for an alliance to take the S and R. We discussed between ourselves first and agreed to cooperate with them if they agreed that we Mandalay group would take president and general secretary posts. They agreed.

I was elected the general secretary and Aung Than from Final part II was elected president at the Latha Street Hostel students mass meeting defeating the DSO and other students. My joint general secretary was Myint Htoo one 2^nd MB student from Natmauk. He was simple, hardworking and honest. He did whatever I asked him to do, but he went underground later and he died in a fighting with the Burma Army.

Win Hlaing joined us after about two weeks as he had to settle the S and R account in Mandalay as the new general secretary from which post I had already resigned before transferring to Rangoon at the last Executive Committee Meeting. My reason was sound as I was going to Rangoon to join the Burma Army Medical Corps as a cadet officer. I chose this course to ensure further study for me and to ease my parents of economic burden to support three college students at the same time. State Scholarship to study abroad was highly competitive.

My class mate and friend Muriel Yi Yi Myint also joined the army like me. Many of my friends later joined it as they thought that I would not join it if there were no advantages. We had about 15 to 20 medical cadet officers then. I remember the following medical cadets:

1. Maung Maung Khin MBBS (Managing Director of Trade Corporation No. 10)
2. Khalid Maung Maung MBBS (Brother of Minister U Raschid, Colonel, Retired)
3. Kyaw Soe MBBS ( Aviation Medicine Expert, Colonel, Retired)
4. Than Zin MBBS, M.Med.Sc.(Orthopaedics) (Deputy Minister for Health, Colonel, Retired)
5. Myo Myint MBBS, DA (Anaesthetics, Major, Retired, now Abroad)
6. Tun Nyo MBBS, DLO (London) ( Major, Retired, Malaysia)
7. Hla Maung MBBS, FRCS (Son of Minister U Kar, Major retired, now in Canada)
8. Mya Oo MBBS, FRCP (Colonel, Retired, Deputy Minister for Health, Current)
9. Ohn Kyaw MBBS, FRCPsych (Colonel, Retired, Now in Australia)
10. Aye Pe MBBS (Oncologist, Colonel, Retired)
11. Muriel Yi Yi Myint MD, Board Certified Psychiatrist (USA)
12. Khin Maung Thwin MBBS, FACS (Surgeon, Colonel, Retired)
13. Tun Hlaing MBBS, M.Med, Sc .(Internal Medicine) (Colonel, Retired)
14. Aung Nyein MBBS, M.Med. Sc.( Internal Medicine, Colonel, Retired)
15. Soe Tint MBBS (Major, Retired)
16. Hla Kyaw Mya (Captain, Retired)
17. Tun Naing (Major, Retired)
18. Maung Mang Nyo Ph.D. (Major, Retired; Professor, Retired; Malaysia)

(Rangoon General Hospital, RGH, Rangoon)

Final Part I Year

We had a hectic teaching schedule. We had to attend the post-mortem classes from 7.00 AM to 8.AM at the mortuary, Rangoon General Hospital every day for pathology and forensic medicine. Pathology took 4 days per week. Professor Dr Khin Maung Win took the Pathology Postmortem and he was a superb teacher. He correlated pathology with clinical medicine. It was very interesting and stimulating. Dr Maung Maung Taik took forensic postmortem and his classes were sweet and brief.

Professor Khin Maung Win called Thein Htut in the class often and said his father Colonel Min Sein was U Khin Maung Win’s teacher. But, one small Choudhury answered most of the questions in the class correctly. There were two Choudhurys in our class. Both left Burma after graduation.

Hospital posting was from 8.00 A.M. to 11.00 A.M. We were posted to specialties like TB, Leprosy, ENT, Eye Diseases, Anaesthesiology, Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery. We attended the surgical or medical clinics from 11 A.M. to 12 noon with the Final Pat II students. Krisna Brajwaja was the star of the Final Part II class.

In the evening from 1 P.M. onwards we attended the lectures of pathology, public health and forensic medicine. It went up to 4 P.M. Then a group of students about 10 or 12 had night duty for obstetric child delivery at the Dufferin Hospital, now Central Women Hospital for two months. I had to do it in January and February near my final examination. It was OK. I was a regular student belonging to the top 10 %.

To boast a little bit, I was well known at the Final Part I Year. Every body knew me, beginning with Sayagyi U Ko Gyi (Eye). He praised my knowledge and audacity to answer any question, right or wrong, in the class and for my involvement with student activities. He knew I was General Secretary of the S and R Club of the Latha Hostel taking care of the meals. We arranged to have monthly special dinner besides the daily meals being acceptable. I also published the Mandalay BMF Magazine that year from Rangoon.

We gave a grand annual dinner to students at the end of the year at the Lanmadaw Medical College Compound. All the wardens were invited, but only U Ko Gyi and Dr Hla Toe came. Dr Maung Maung Aye did not come. He was preparing to go for FRCS. All consultants failed to appear as it was the time for their private practice. I remember Dean U Maung Gale was present.

The Public Health study trip to Gyobyu Water Reservoir, Hlawga Tanks and Cinemas and market in Rangoon was exciting. We learned public health problems at first hand. Then, I was posted to the Base Military Hospital in Maymyo (Now, Pyin-Oo-Lwin) for training as a medical cadet during the summer holidays. I learned a lot doing minor surgery and orthopaedics.

My Final Part II Year

I had read most of the clinical medicine and surgery before the classes began and I was to pursue the truly final year. The pattern of teaching and learning was the same as in the final Part I year. We attended the post-mortem pathology classes every day from 7 A.M. to 8.A.M. The forensic medicine post-mortem had had been finished. But, Pathology Department instructed each student to write 20 postmortem reports and it was taxing.

We went to the medical or surgical ward from 9 AM to 11 AM and the Professor or his assistant used to take us to the OPD for fresh cases. We were posted to Sayagyi PR Mohan’s ward and his assistant Dr Daw Hnin Yee took us to the medical OPD every day. They were not yet married and both were sweet to us as students coming from Anyar (Mandalay).

We spent 3 months in the medical ward. We trained in surgery for another 3 months and we spent it in Ward 7 and 8 of RGH under Sayagyi U Khin Maung Latt. He was very patient, methodical and he allowed us to see each and every case in details even at the operating theatre. Dr Shein Win was his assistant who studied for himself and did not care for the students. He was preparing for further study abroad and later went to USA. We found him retired from surgery when we called him in 1975. His wife was a class mate of Dr Kyaw Win.

We studied gynaecology for two months at the Dufferin Hospital before we sat for the final examination in March. We only had three papers: Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Paediatrics was part of Medicine and there was only one compulsory question on it. We finished two months paediatrics posting during the Final Part I Year. We trained under Dr Barua who stood first at the final examination of his Final Part II MBBS class. He did not get the MRCP (Paediatrics) as he had a dispute with the examiners about the diagnosis of a patient.

He thought it was small pox in the prodromal stage that the examiners disproved. Later his diagnosis was found correct and he was offered another chance. But he declined saying,” Barua never sat an examination twice!”

I was not as proud as he was and probably not as bright as him, but I nearly failed in surgery. The true story is as follows.

I did very well in all theory papers and I was sure I would pass all three subjects and qualify for MBBS degree. On the day of surgical clinic I got a peptic ulcer case and I did a very good write-up. But the examiners passed me every time they were to ask for case presentation and we had about 10 students and I had to wait last for my turn. Sayagyi U Kyaw Maung told me, “You wait to the last as you scored highest marks in surgery paper” as a good news to allay my anxiety.

However, I was beginning to suffer from hypoglycaemia as I did not eat anything in the morning except a cup of coffee. Now time wore on past noon and I became more and more hungry. I felt giddy too. I was totally incoherent when U Kyaw Maung and Mr Peter Randell came to ask me as examiners in clinical surgery. I did not remember what I answered, but U Kyaw Maung said” Maung Nyo, you are not what we have expected from theory.” I was dismayed by his comment and only Professor Kyi Paw saved me in the viva voce (Oral).

Mya Oo and I were sleeping on our beds when our results were considered in the Board Room at Lanmadaw Office and we were anxious about our chances. But, Hla Oo came in to our room shouting, “Ko Nyo and Mya Oo, both of you qualified. “ Hla Oo, Mya Oo and I shared a room at the Extension all of the Lanmadaw Student Hostel in my Final Part II Year. We were so happy to hear that we gave a dinner that night and a dozen bottles of Rum were handed out to our friends during our convocation night in December 1961.

My Student and Political Activities

I was very much involved with student activities from 1958 to 1961. The care taker military government ruled the country from 1958 to 1960 with the approval of the Parliament. U Nu's Clean Faction of the AFPFL won the parliamentary votes to maintain the government but the Stable Faction of the AFPFL popularly known as Swe-Nyein group disrupted its administration very much thus resulting in the first transfer of political power to General Ne Win and the Burma Army. We were told in the Army how they sabotaged the U Nu's Government. It was real politics at its worst. We were all for U Nu's faction and NUF.

(Kyemon U Thaung; He published My Articles in His Daily)

I attended the mass meetings of the political rallies held at Rangoon University and other places in Rangoon. We supported Bo Kyaw Zaw for parliamentary Election in 1960. but he did not win. I had already attended his talks given at the Students Union Building in the Rangoon University campus in 1955/56 and read a lot about him. We students liked and supported him.

(Rangoon University Student Union Building Was

Still Extant During Our Times.)

I also attended the All Burma Students Seminar held at the Rangoon University in 1958. U Nu's Government funded the conference. It was a week long seminar and we asked for peace in the country and supported for the student causes. I met Thakhin Tin at the Mandalay University as he was meeting the student leaders in his capacity as the Deputy Premier of U Nu's Clean AFPFL Government. I was then General Secretary of the S and R Club in Mandalay Medical Hostel and Chairman of the Annual BMF Magazine Committee. I was a free lance writer in the Kyemon (Mirror) daily.

(Bo Kyaw Zaw'as 89th Birthday; We supported him in the 1950)

Then , I was the General Secretary of the Latha Street Hostel from 1959 to 1960. I was involved with the Annual Magazine of the Rangoon Medical College and wrote a short story in its issue of 1960/61. I used a pseudonym. I became more friendly with the Ta-U students and they asked me to be their president at Rangoon Medical College that I had to decline, but our common activities continued.

Epilogue

Final Part I and Part II Years during our times took one year each. It was a hectic schedule for students. There was a saying that 2^nd MBBS examination and the Final Part II examination were toughest during the medical curriculum and if you passed them you are a doctor. It may be true, but I think that may be due to heavy work loads and big books we had to read during those times. Maybe the absence of application of medical education science in those days made the study and examination so difficult and unpredictable. I for one enjoyed all the years in my medical school and I would repeat them again if the need be.

(Logo of University of Rangoon, My Alma Mata)

Much water has flowed under the bridge and we now have better teachers in Medicine in Burma.

Some of the students who have graduated MBBS (Rangoon University) with me in 1961 March are as follows:

1. Thein Htut FRCP (Now Australia)
2. Min Aung FRCS, M.Ch. (Orthopaedics) ( Now USA)
3. Than Aung FRCS (General Surgeon) ( Burma)
4. Than Aung FRCS (Ophthalmology) (WHO)
5. Myo Min Aung FRCP (Paediatrics) (Now UK)
6. Ma Win May FRCOG (Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Retired)
7. Sheila San San Myint FFARCS (Retired, Burma)
8. Mya Oo FRCP (Current Deputy Minister for Health, Burma)
9. Muriel Yi Yi Myint MD (Psychiatrist) (USA)
10. Aye Ngwe FRCS (ENT) (UK)
11. Tin Win M.Med.Sc. (Professor of Surgery, Retired) ( Burma)
12. Bernard Tin Myint MRCP (Paediatrics) (USA)
13. Taw Kyin Lyan FRCS (Hong Kong)
14. Tham Kyi Toe (MRCPath) (Hong Kong)
15. Khin Mya Thwin MCHSH ( Burma)
16. Ma Than Yin DPM (Psychiatrist) (Burma)
17. Myint Myint May M.Med Sc. (Psychiatrist) (Burma)
    
18. Myint Myint Mu FRCS ( Anatomist and Surgeon) (Malaysia)
19. Khin Myo Win DA (Anaesthetist) (Burma)
20. Saw Ba Tun Kyi MD (Orthopaedic Surgeon) (USA)
21. Kyi Pe Law M.Med.Sc. (Orthopaedics)
22. Tin Myo Than MD ( Pshchiatrist) (Deceased, USA)
23. Khin Mya Than MD, D.Bact. (Deceased, USA)
24. Ma Tin Aye MD D.Bact. (Deceased, USA)
    
25. Maung Maung Nyo Ph.D. (London), M.A. (Med. Edu.,MSU), FOMERAD
    

Dr Maung Maung Nyo

29.01.2009