Chairman of State Administration Council Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Maha Thray Sithu Senior General Min Aung Hlaing addresses Passing-out Parade of the 22nd Intake of Defence Services Medical Academy
NAY PYI TAW December 20
The Passing-out Parade of the 22nd Intake of Defence Services Medical Academy was held at the parade ground of DSMA in Yangon this morning with an address by Chairman of State Administration Council Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Maha Thray Sithu Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Also present were Commander- in-Chief (Navy) Admiral Zeya Kyawhtin Moe Aung, Commander- in-Chief (Air) General Sithu Maung Maung Kyaw, senior military officers from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, Union ministers, the chief minister of Yangon Region, the commander of Yangon Command, the Yangon mayor, the acting commandant of DSMA, and officials of Mingaladon Station.
First, the Senior General took the salute of the cadet battalions and inspected the company of graduate cadets. Then, the cadet companies saluted the Senior General with slow-march past and quick-march past.
The Senior General presented Best Cadet Award to Cadet Zeya Myo Naung, Excellent Award in Training to Cadet Myat Min Thu, Excellent Award in Studies to Cadet Hset Naing Aung. In his address, the Senior General said the Defence Services Medical Academy (DSMA) has been continuously producing military officers and now there are altogether about 5,000, in accordance with the aim of "Bring up physically and intellectually able medical science officers required by that Tatmadaw (Army, Navy and Air)" so that you all would be able to serve dutifully as military medical officers holding noble traditions and serving in the Tatmadaw which initiated with great traditions.
At your assigned regions and medical corps, you all are about to hand-over the duties of preventing the pandemic, sharing knowledge how to prevent disease and giving treatment to not only the Tatmadaw men but also the civilians. I'd like to suggest you all to serve the nation and the Tatmadaw applying medical knowledge learned theoretically and practically at the Defence Services Medical Academy (DSMA).
Being military medical officers, it is necessary for you all to have both the noble spirit of a good soldier and the great spirit of a good doctor. The Defence Ser vices Medical Academy (DSMA) has already trained you to be physically fit, very moral persons and well-disciplined. Even though you all are carrying out heavy duties, you would be able to stand and endure hardship and manage to complete your mission dauntlessly as you all are already given military training to be able to lead a platoon in the battlefields.
While giving you training to have the spirits of a good soldier, you all are trained to strictly abide the prescribed (60) ethics of a trooper as if the code of conduct in the Tatmadaw.
Moreover, to have the spirits of a good doctor, you all are not only taught medical subjects but also trained to have righteous spirits and attitudes of a good doctor in line with medical ethics for all medical men. Therefore, I'd like to address you to apply them in your practical field of services by making good use of them. Moreover, you all are going to vow the (9) oaths at your graduation ceremony as doctors and I'd like to exhort you to abide them as basic ethics and to have benevolence, kindness, sympathy and empathy for your patients.
Everyone is longing for a long and healthy life. In order to have such a long and healthy life, one has to take great care of himself and on the other hand, health care services of health care workers are also very important.
While giving health care services, not only giving treatment but also preventive measures for diseases are to carry out in advance. For everyone to be healthy, it is essential to give health education services like to practice preventive measures for each disease respectively, to do physical exercises in line with the motto, "Exercise is Medicine", and to lead a healthy life style. Furthermore, It is really necessary to learn peculiar diseases as well as advanced medical science subjects continuously and at the same time, it is necessary to do researches concerning with the development in medical science.
One’s expected life span in Myanmar is 67.78 years, working out by United Nations Population Department of World Health Organization. In the year 2020, expected life span in Myanmar would be taking the position of 151 in the world’s list, the 6th position among the neighboring countries and the 10th position among the ASEAN countries which is the least. While rating the life span basically, it is mainly based on the situations of pregnant women and children, education systems, socio-economy, life style and child mortality rate.
Moreover, people’s physical development in our country is not as satisfactory as those in other countries. In order to raise the life span of our country, it is necessary to upgrade the levelof living standards, literacy and economy.
The main duty of our Tatmadaw is to defense, to practice and to give public welfare services to the national groups where you are assigned. Moreover, apart from giving health care services to the ethnic groups, you must help them to develop their socio-economy.
By doing so, you are fulfilling the need of health care workers from one corner and also you are, on the other way, helping them as much as you can, for their socio-economic success. What you are doing is actually the noble traditions of medical corps.
Regardless of time, place, race and religion, in order to give health care services widely not only to the Tatmadaw men and their families but also the national races all over the country, Tatmadaw Medical Corps are now fulfilling the needs of national health sector by sending military mobile medical teams.
Health education is widely given in the countryside and border areas as people there are lack of health knowledge and misunderstanding. By doing so, our Tatmadaw has been successfully giving a national defence duty which is to protect public benefits.
At the present time, every country in the world is facing COVID-19 which becomes the common enemy of the current mankind and which is also the most threatening pandemic for daily socio-economic life. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, there were challenges for health care systems, and pressure as well as burdens for health care workers. It can be seen that there are challenges in the services of preventing, controlling and covering the COVID-19 disease.
In Myanmar, the infection rate and mortality rate of COVID-19 were the highest during the third wave compared to the 1st and the 2nd waves. Due to abiding by the rules and restrictions of COVID-19 pandemic less strictly, worldwide spread of highly infectious mutant delta variant and deficiency of medicine and aids, we all have already known that it was really a hard time to face the third wave of COVID-19 with lots of difficulties.
While there are lots of difficulties in controlling and giving treatment for COVID-19, what makes the situation worse was that some doctors and health workers abandoned their assigned hospitals and clinics, ignoring medical ethics and as a result of this disgraceful act, it led to heaps of COVID-19 victims and great loss of lives.
During these days, there were great losses in health which mainly affect ordinary laymen. In doing the work of COVID-19 controlling and giving treatment, health workers from the Ministry of Health, Military Medical Corps, voluntary organizations and dutiful citizens actively cooperated and as a result, the outbreak of the third wave of COVID-19 was able to be controlled.
Moreover, while looking forward to the outbreak of the fourth wave, in order to keep on doing the tasks of COVID-19 controlling, preventing and giving treatment at steady speed, our Tatmadaw will go on working cooperatively in the works done by State Administration Council. In controlling COVID-19 disease, since vaccinating is the most important, we have already managed to get 42 million vaccines and aimed that 50 percent of the population would have been vaccinated by the end of this month.
Our Tatmadaw will still be taking the important role in the tasks of controlling and giving treatment as well as rebuilding since the COVID-19 can’t be completely driven out but it will always be by our side. Thus, I’d like to address you all to participate actively in the tasks of preventing and giving treatment of COVID-19 pandemic in the respective regions where you are assigned.
Concerning with public health, as the saying “Nothing is more important than human’s life” goes, it is necessary for the Tatmadaw to work hard to give much better health care services for the public and to help medical science develop.
Since medical science is a difficult subject, only when there are well-qualified teachers, adequate teaching-learning aids, learners’ interest and creative thinking then they can help to produce efficient military doctors. At present, the Defence Services Medical Academy (DSMA) is already in the recognized List of World Federation for Medical Education and medical subjects are taught in line with international syllabus.
Besides, you all must observe the competency of International Medical Corps, train yourselves to have the strong spirit to learn more about medical science in order to keep abreast with other countries. Work hard with irreducible diligence. I’d like to advise you all to apply your medical knowledge in the practical field and become “an efficient doctor and a good soldier” for the nation and the Tatmadaw.
You all are about to serve as junior military medical officers taking duties in the company. While administering your subordinates, you must make use the qualities of a good leader such as having good morality, behaving well and talking righteous words, giving just commands, being good-natured, being obedient and well-disciplined, being dutiful and responsible, and making righteous decision.
You yourselves are carrying out national defence duties and you are also giving medical cover to the other military men who have already sacrificed their lives so that you all have basic noble spirits. By strengthening these basic noble spirits, build yourselves to become a welldisciplined military man. To become a military doctor, the nation and Tatmadaw have trained you all by spending much money and time and on the other hand you have to try and train yourselves to become well-behaved and well-qualified doctors and officers so that you could upgrade your respective life as well as your parents’ hope.
Everyone has aims and wants to be well-off. In trying to have a successful and prosperous life, the main key is to train yourself to have the spirits of contentment, honesty and hard working. It is necessary not to forget the fact that contentment can make a person not to be too greedy and honesty can make a person always valuable. With contentment, you must work hard honestly and it is also essential to have a proper balance between your income and your expenditure. Therefore, it is sure to have success depending on your effort, abiding by the discipline and healthy lifestyle.
Hence, keeping senses and awareness in mind and making use of your good habits, I’d like to exhort you all to be loyal to the nation and Tatmadaw and to serve dutifully for the benefits of the battalion, Tatmadaw, region and nation where you are assigned.
All must work hard for the nation, Tatmadaw and national ethnic groups as physically and intellectually able medical science officers required by the Tatmadaw (Army, Navy and Air), give medical treatment correctly to your patients with love and benevolence as an efficient doctor and a good soldier, solemnly abiding by the ethics of a good trooper and medical oaths, With your learned medical sciences, give medical cover to the military men doing the national defence duty to be able to fit and healthy so that they could accomplish their mission completely according to the motto, “Be fit to fight”, which is the aim of medical corps. Train yourselves to become reliable medical science officers of the Tatmadaw who strictly abide by the military rules and restrictions and give righteous leadership to the company under your control. All must train and try yourselves to become physically and intellectually able doctors and good soldiers whom the nation and the Tatmadaw can take pride in as in the motto of the Defence Services Medical Academy (DSMA), “To be an efficient doctor and a good soldier”.
After taking salute from the cadet companies, the Senior General left the parade ceremony. After the parade ceremony, the Senior General met with cadets who won outstanding awards at the parlour of the headquarters of the DSMA and spoke words of honour.
In his praise of the outstanding cadets, the Senior General said like their parents he also felt pleasure and honour for the outstanding cadets. The cadets won the outstanding awards as they had tried very hard throughout the course with their own vision and mission.
So, they already have the good foundations. They must exercise self-control with awareness and contentment to keep their vision and mission on course throughout their life. The Senior General expressed extra pleasure and honor for the parents who are ordinary citizens. The cadets must pay back the debt of gratitude they owe to their parents who had nurtured them from their childhood years till they reached the academy by showing obeisance to them.
They must also pay back the debt of gratitude they owe to Tatmadaw which had taught them intellectual and technological knowledge by pursuing the life of a good soldier and dutifully providing medical treatment to Tatmadawmen and families as a leader. They must realize their visions through self-control and hard work and should preserve the national honour, the value of honesty and the value of a soldier.