{ သားသားၾကီးလာရင္ဖတ္ရန္ သံမဏိလူသားဖိုးဖိုးၾကီး တစ္ေယာက္အေၾကာင္း} (၄)

Catch 22 –
With the help of his wife’s Godfather U San Maung, (General Ne Win’s brother-in-law) Tom Pe Thein was promoted as Director General Medical Education and shifted to Rangoon. With U Pe Thein now installed as the DGME in Rangoon, the Director thought the coast was now clear for Hla Khine to go back to ‘mother’ Department in Mandalay. Wanting to be with my young children and to manage my own clinic in Myauk Pyin (North of Mandalay Moat), I was more than happy moving back to Mandalay. But U Khin Maung Sein finding that the 2nd MB students (most of them children of ‘Big Shots’ in Rangoon) very unruly and showing disrespect during most of his lectures found the battle field in MC 1, LeikGone, unfriendly territory. He summoned his student, the daughter of the Minster of Health & Education and told her to arrange a meeting with her father. In tears, he beseeched to be sent back to Mandalay. On obtaining permission to do so, he added a stipulation saying that he would find it difficult for him to run the department if Hla Khine was also there. Thus by order of the Health & Education Minister, U Pe Thein, as the DGME sent a Gazetted letter to me instructing me to report to the Rector U Hla Myint of MC1 by the 25th of July of that year. My reply to the DGME was simple but the Deputy DGME, Daw MayMayYi thought it was rude. My reply to the DGMR ran something like this:

Dear Sayagyi,
Just as sayagyi’s name is no longer ‘TOM’ Pe Thein, my name also is not ‘Joon’ (Spelled in Burmese for ‘John’) Hla Khine. If you permit me to serve in Mandalay I will do so, but if you force me to shift to Rangoon, please consider this letter as the letter of Resignation. And from that day onwards, I stopped going to my department in Mandalay.
How dare they volley me like a shuttle cock between Rangoon and Mandalay just to satisfy the whims and fancy of a man like U Khin Maung Sein ( who like U Pe Thein, conspired to give Distinction when it was not deserved. Another case of shameless misuse of authority and rank ). These men do not realize that there would be black marks on their faces and that is how it will go down in history.
After the examination, I went to see my old friend Dr Saw Alzora Loo, a very gentle and sincere friend who was attached to Health Office , Theinbyu Street. As I was chatting with him over old times at the Base Military Hospital in Maymyo, where both of us served as Internes. his Head clerk came in and I was introduced to him.
On hearing my name he said,
‘ Saya, we’ve already sent a gazetted letter asking you to report to Rector U Hla Myint, MC1’.
“ Ya, I know that and I’ve already written a reply to the DGME about it’
“So have you reported to the Rector?’
“No, I have not. And I’m not moving to Rangoon”
“Saya, don’t do that, just go there and report for duty and you can put up an application for ‘leave’ and go back to Mandalay’
“Sorry, if I say’ I’m not coming’, I’m not coming. I’m not going to ‘cheat’ people, report for duty and go back to my base in Mandalay’
‘Saya, don’t do that, because they can revoke your HsaMa (Medical Registration Booklet permitting Private Practice).
I took out that small blue booklet and banged it onto Alzora’s desk and told him,
“ OK, here it is. Take it back’.
‘Saya, what I’m saying is that ‘they’ can take your HsaMa back as a form of punishment.’
‘Ya, I know, there it is. Even before they take it back I’m giving it to you’
‘’Haar, it’s difficult to talk to you, saya’
‘Where is the difficulty, I’m making things easy for you, there is the HsaMa. Now, you don’t need to send a letter stating you have revoked it’.
“No, but there have been cases (and he mentioned 3 or 4 names) where when they put up the ‘appeals’ they got the HsaMa back’
‘Don’t misunderstand me, I’m Hla Khine, I don’t make any appeals to anybody’
The Head clerk looked bewildered and left Alzora’s room with confusion written on his face. So my intention of looking up an old friend resulted not only in ‘chucking’ away the HsaMa and my GP but also happened to have ‘sacked’ myself from my job in MC Mandalay..
Before I went back to Mandalay, my old friend from Mandalay who owned about 4 GMC trucks and who was engaged in Transportation business came to see me looking restless and worried. His wife, an old TB patient had Haemoptesis and had to be hospitalized. He requested me to drive back his GMC truck to Mandalay. That evening he took me to the Strand Road back lanes where his truck was loaded or ‘overloaded’ with all types of goods - drums of cooking oil, bags of rice and dried fish, salt, bags of kalapare, etc. etc. The goods overflowed or over-covered the roof of his truck which were pressed down with water-proof tarpaulin and ropes. i have driven jeeps and salon cars but not trucks, and definitely not trucks that were overloaded that high. But the goods have already been loaded and because of the state of emergency with his wife’s condition, there was no way of backing out. He introduced me to his ‘spare’ driver (we call SpareYar) and told him that I would be driving the truck back to Mandalay and to help me with whatever I needed. That young guy in faded and frayed jeans looked ‘funnily’ at me. I could make out that with my taikpone jacket, pasoe and golf hat, I didn’t look like I could drive a truck or even drive a car.
‘Saya, kar maung tat thalaa?
‘Maung tat par dere’
‘Truck kargyi yaw maung boo thalaa?’
‘Truck kar dor. ma maung boo baboo’
‘Maung lo. Hpyit pa malaa?’
‘Ya baa dere, doe. Sayarwun dweyga Gaung thone pee aloke loke tat dere’.
With a ‘huge’ look of skepticism he went about to prepare for us to leave.
But as luck would have it, I’m not used to the petrol pedal of the truck. I’m only used to the pedal of the saloon or jeep where a slight pressure on the petrol pedal would rev up the engine noisily much to the resentment of everyone. But I did not realize that with the truck, I need to sit ‘at the edge’ of the seat and press way down in order to elicit any response. Thus just to start the car, it took me 5-6 attempts just to make me familiar with the response of the petrol pedal. By this time, the SpareYar guy was getting jittery and showed lack of confidence in my driving skill. Had we have a HandPhone at that period, he would have gone to the back of the truck out of my sight to call up his boss to say ‘ No dice’. He just got down from the truck and stood there watching as to how I would start the engine. OK, after some aborted hiccups, the engine started and I became aware of its level of sensitivity. So he got onto the truck and we were about to move off. And the unexpected thing happened. After I’ve engaged the gear and let go the clutch, the yet unfamiliar pressure on the petrol pedal caused the engine to go sputter, sputter and the engine went dead with a jolt. By now my friend was visibly getting fed up and bored with me. He purposely jumped down from the truck and landed on the ground with both his feet as an expression of exasperation.
Ignoring all his displays of exasperation I started the engine again and drilled myself mentally the steps I should take to make the truck roll. This time it went off well and we started to move. The spare driver jumped onto the narrow landing outside the door and did not make any move to get in and take the seat. By which he meant he would jump off and abandon me and the truck should the driving go awry. Thus, with him standing on the landing, we drove on until we reached Hmorbi when he came in to take the seat beside me. I found out that it irritated him no end each time I stooped at the edge of the road to let the opposite truck maneuver and drive past us.
‘Saya, ma yat par ne. Kar gyauk htare leink thwa leik mere’.
Thus with distrust and frequent uncalled-for advice on his part, we eventually reached Mandalay. My forearm muscles were aching by the unusual exercise of turning
the heavy steering wheel. I drove the truck just once but Deputy Minister of Education, U Kyaw Khin thought that I have become a professional truck driver after I resigned myself from the Service.
My former Head of Department of Anatomy in Mandalay, Professor U Myint Thein realizing that I have stopped going to work suggested that I go and see my former Professor of Medicine, Dr Daw MyintMyintKhin who had recently returned from Malaysia where she was invited to be the Examiner for the Final Year Graduating Examination. She was helpful and gave me the name and address of the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the National University of Malaysia, UKM. She also volunteered to act as my referee. Seeing my postgraduate degree and the period of experience as an Anatomist, the job offer was sent immediately. But the stipulation was that I should take up this offer within six months. I made preparations and went down to Rangoon to apply for a passport. The prerequisite was that I should get the Education Clearance. I went to the DGME’s office to get it and on meeting DGME’s assistant, he told me that since I had with uncontrolled malice banged his shoulders many times till he fell on his bum on many occasions, U Pe Thein, as Director General now, was ‘not likely’ to put his signature on my Education Clearance form that easily. In fact, he could, with spite, shove it into the bottom-most drawer of his desk and forget about it as if turning the screw one revolution at a time, just to repay me for his frequent falls on his buttocks.

Catch 22 : No Education Clearance, no Passport.