As a College Student
In the student days of Mahn Ba Zan, there were three colleges in Burma. There was one in Mandalay and two in Rangoon. The Mandalay College was only a two-year college, up to the Intermediate level, while the Judson College and the Rangoon University College offered Bachelor degrees in Arts and Science.
Mandalay college and the Rangoon University College were supported by the government, and Judson College was the American Baptist Mission college. Judson College’s professors and lecturers were Americans, and the professors and lecturers of the Rangoon University College and Mandalay College were Englishmen and Anglo-Indians. There were about three hundred students at the Judson College and more than a thousand in the Rangoon University College.
Those studying at the Judson College were Karens and Burman Christian students who passed the Tenth standard (High School) from high schools run by the American Mission, those comprising children with parents of moderate means.
Female and male students studying at the Rangoon University were those with wealthy parents and high officials. The average University College students were those aiming for and coveting high status and prestige, as compared to the general public.
Nevertheless, in government administrative departments, those able to become low to high officials were only the children of senior officials who graduated with Bachelor of Arts degrees, and the children of those who were very wealthy.
Said Mahn Ba Zan, “ The reason for my parents sending me to the Judson College was because it was a mission institution. In addition to less expenses, they hoped that I also would gain some university experience with a lesser influence of destructive moral behavior.”
While studying at the Judson College, in addition to his major subjects he came in contact with politics. In Burmese politics, the political activities of the University students were important and effective. The students formed their organizations, which became vanguards in political activities and the ensuing movements.
The student activities were not only for opposing the colonial education system, but have given immense help also in the fight for Burma’s Independence.
In those days, in the Burmese political scene, Dobama Asiayone (roughly ‘We Burmese Association) had a great deal of political clout. Leftist policies of Marx and Lenin pervaded the student mass.
Leaders of the Rangoon University Student Association were:
1. Ko Aung San (Major General Aung San)
2. Mister Rashid
3. Ko Nu (Thakin Nu)
4. Ko Ba Hswe
5. Ko Kyaw Nyein
6. Ko Tun Shein (Bo Yan Naing), etc.
The year he started at the Rangoon University College, led by the Rangoon University Student Association, students went on strike, keeping their central headquarters at the Shwedagon Pagoda.
During that Strike, the majority of the students who took part were from the Rangoon University. Mahn Ba Zan was the only student from Judson College.
Wrote Mahn Ba Zan; “ I took part in the University Student Association. In doing so, I gained a lot of experience. I was also involved in the student Strike of December 22, 1938, when Bo Aung Gyaw fell. From then on I became interested in politics. In reality, (my participation in) the University Association was a chapter in the fight for Burma’s Independence.
I have taken part in the leadership of Student Association demonstrations. I attended the political rallies. I did not understand every speech or discourse because of my lack of political background and experience. After having made more research in politics, I came to understand the speeches. Because I took part in the strike, the Principal called me to his office and warned me of possible suspension from the college.
While at the Judson College, I stayed at Wellington Hall, and when I attended the Rangoon University College, I boarded in the Pagan Hall.”
“My father wanted me to stay at Pagan Hall. That dormitory had good discipline.”
Pagan Hall had its own compound, built separately, and had such strict rules that students from other dormitories called it a prison. At that time, the Hall warden was a Moslem Lecturer Saya U Kha, and the Assistant Warden was Saya U Cho.
There were more than eighty students at Pagan Hall, with Karen, Burman, Mon, Shan, Arakan, and Anglo-mixture (Eurasian), of Christians, Buddhists and Muslims, comprising all nationalities of the country. The students staying in this Hall came from the middle class, meaning that they were not the offspring of neither very rich nor very poor families.
The students of Pagan Hall were consolidated, helping and supporting each other. All of them were members of the Student Union. It was as though this were a mini-union of states. The education system of that time was that of British colonial slave education. What was meant by colonial sale education system was:
To benefit the economy of the British expansionists, in a way to enhance their commercial enterprises and their administration, they produced educated people, hiring them at low wages. It was an education system that gave not a single guarantee in their careers.
The year 1938 that I studied at the Rangoon University College was the time when a storm hit in the history of Burma’s politics. Political battles and proletarian struggles were seriously staged.
Dr. Ba Maw of the sinyetha (the poor) party was in power with his administration, and U Saw and U Pu were opposition leaders. The latter were representatives of capitalist interests, with their capitalist parties being some of those political parties formed prior to 1935. Although they claimed to oppose expansionism, their movements had no efficacy.
In 1935, with the name of Dobama Asiayone, a fledgling capitalist organization came into being. That organization / party included educated people, traders and brokers, and students, explicitly opposing expansionism. The party consisted of leftist as well as rightist adherents, and the leftists were in the majority. The leftists were those who believed in Marxism and Leninism, and also those following the socialist Democracy system.
Those who believed in the Marxist and Lenin theories formed the Burma Communist Party (BCP). Leaders of those parties were Thakin Soe, Thakin Than Tun, and Mr. Gosher, etc. Bogyoke Aung San and Bo Letya were members when the Burma Communist party was formed, but the party considered them wavering and insincere people and thus expelled them.
Some of the Social Democrats formed Pyithu Ayaydawbone (roughly, National Revolution) Party, with Thakin Mya, Thakin Chit and Thakin Lwin, etc. as leaders.
The Dobama Asiayone was able to organize workers, farmers and students, and was able to have authority upon them. It also included those who desired Communism, Socialism, and blind nationalists or ultra nationalists (those blindly following their nationalist instinct).
The ultra nationalists in the Dobama Asiayone were Thakin Ba Sein, Thakin Tun Oak, and Thakin Shu Maung (a) Bo Ne Win, etc. Although policies were different in the Dobama Asiayone, there was consolidation for the struggle against expansionism.
There was also effectiveness in staging proletariat offensives. In the great 1935 Oil Field workers’ Strike, because of the coordination and help available from the farmers’ struggle, the workers’ struggle, and the students’ resistance, the opposition by government employees and officials, the expansionists were shaken up and began to think about the case for Burma’s Independence.
At that time, Rangoon University Students Union leaders such as Ko Ba Hein, Ko Hla Shwe, Ko Ba Hswe, etc., rallied and led the students, and in cooperation with people in the country of all levels, entered the struggle (for Burma’s Independence).
It was during that stage when the amateurish U.T.C. (University Training Corp) was formed. To obtain military education, I joined that unit. The training was given once a week, on Fridays, and an annual field camp to Maymyo Cantonment was also conducted, thus enabling me to acquire basic military education.
While as a University student I was a member of University Karen Student Association, University History Association, an executive member of the History Association, a member of the University selected football team (the First Eleven Team).
Although I was involved in extracurricular activities of politics, military, social, physical and music, I never let them interfere with my studies. I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree in 1939, which ended my University student days.
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