Nay Pyi Taw December 18
The Passing-out Parade of the 24th 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 Senior General Thadoe Maha Thray Sithu Thadoe Thiri Thudhamma Min Aung Hlaing.
Also present at the ceremony together with the Senior General were wife Daw Kyu Kyu Hla, Commander-in-Chief (Navy) Admiral Zeya Kyawhtin Sithu Moe Aung and wife, Commander-in-Chief (Air) General Zeya Kyawhtin Sithu Tun Aung and wife, senior military officers from the Office of the Commander-in Chief and wives, union ministers, the chief minister of Yangon Region, the Yangon Command commander, the acting commandant of DSMA and officials of Mingaladon Station, officer instructors and faculty members of the academic wing and training wing of DSMA, who are the guardians of the cadets, and guests.
The Senior General took the salute of the cadet companies and inspected the graduation company. The cadet companies saluted the Senior General with slow-march past and quickmarch past.
Afterwards, the Senior General presented Best Cadet Award to Cadet Aung Kyaw Min, Excellent Award in Training to Cadet Saw Pyae Aung and Excellent Award in Studies to Cadet Naing Ye Hla.
In his address, the Senior General said the DSMA was set up with the aim of turning out medical officers with physical fitness and mental fitness for the Tatmadaw (Army, Navy and Air). It is an honour for the alumni of DSMA who are discharging the assigned duties with might and main in the relevant sectors in addition to providing healthcare service for the State and Tatmdaw.
The State Administration Council has adopted the five-point Roadmap and nine objectives in striving to develop the country in multiple sectors. In doing so, the SAC is implementing the national tasks – national prosperity and food sufficiency. The production of various kinds of safe and nutritious food and farming products amounts to developing the national economy and supporting food security.
As the country has a large cultivation area, proportionate population increase, and fair weather, normally it can be said a country that has food sufficiency. But the countrymen lack knowledge about the healthy diet and healthy living style. In this regard, members of the medical corps must disseminate steps of healthy lifestyle at the places where they are assigned and organize the locals to pursue it.
Thanks to the good preparations, cyclonic storm Mocha could cause less damage to the country in 2023. Timely healthcare services have been provided for the victims from the time the storm hit the country till now. In the rehabilitation sector, five disease prevention and control teams were providing healthcare services in the storm hit areas. The Tatmadaw is always ready to render help whenever a natural disaster hits the country. Medics and members of the medical corps actively took part in the frontline of relief and rescue and rehabilitation services for the victims. Of the nine objectives adopted by the SAC, the second point – To elevate the health and sports sectors inclusive of all the people, improving the longevity and health of the nation – and the health sector has been developed to ensure health and fitness of the citizens.
Therefore, the Tatmadaw Medical Corps, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, has been providing treatment throughout the country with mobile specialist medical teams in order to provide public health care activities. In 2023, mobile medical vehicles provided free medical treatments to rural people, while sea-going and river-going hospital ships also provided more than 900,000 with treatments for children’s diseases, tooth and eye diseases as well as surgical operations. By going to the rural areas of the country and providing necessary treatments and surgerie for free to the people who are suffering from diseases, the Tatmadaw is carrying out public welfare duties to serve the people out of genuine goodwill.
Today, in order to harm the sovereignty and national unity of the country, the extremist exile politicians with the support of some foreign countries are carrying out terrorist attacks in cooperation with some ethnic armed groups who do not want peace. As such, we will see that the health sector, which is not related to the military, is being targeted intentionally. Particularly, the CRPH, NUG and so-called PDF terrorists which have been declared terrorist organizations by the State are trying to stop the country’s health care system from functioning by persuading health workers, including nurses, to join the CDM with pressure and threats. As some of the health workers broke the oath they had to follow, there was a vacuum in the public’s health care work, and our military specialists, doctors and nurses had to serve.
In addition, terrorists commit acts that are very dangerous for the health and safety of the entire public by carrying out repeated arson and bomb attacks, threatening, pressuring and bullying doctors, nurses and health workers and brutally killing them. As these actions are radical terrorist acts, they cannot be accepted by any country or human society or Myanmar society.
The attack on the health sector is an attack on the country’s human resources, and it is a treacherous terrorist attack on innocent people. When working in the practical field after learning and understanding the terrible lessons as to how the terrorist organizations have done to health workers, military doctors as good soldiers need to protect the people not only with their knowledge of medicine, but also with security awareness.
Military hospitals were up[1]graded, including four hospitals where kidney transplants can be performed, one hospital where liver transplant can be performed, four hospitals that can diagnose heart disease and treat coronary artery disease, two hospitals where heart sur[1]gery can be performed and five hospitals that can perform gastro-intestinal surgery using a telescope.
Because the Tatmadaw was able to upgrade such hospitals, we could carry out kidney transplants, perform heart surgeries, implant pacemakers, provide cardiovascular stent treatments and perform brain and thoracic surgeries for military officers and other ranks as well as civilians. And it is a great honor to see that these achievements have facilitated the efforts to promote the country’s health sector.
Moreover, since they are young military leaders as well as military doctors, they must build themselves to acquire leadership skills. They must be able to carry out the objective tasks assigned to them with the right leadership. Just as they need to be good young military leaders who are full of courage, they need to be filled with a noble mind and a kind heart to help as a doctor. In other words, to become good leaders who are physically and mentally strong, they need to constantly train themselves to have “wide knowledge and a kind heart”. Likewise, the good historical traditions of the Medical Corps must be maintained in accord with the motto “Physicians with rational thought and victorious soldiers”.
To effectively apply the medical science taught by the Defence Services Medical Academy, birthplace of military doctors, in giving medical healthcare to the ethnic people, Tatmadaw members and their families, sharing medical knowledge to them and carrying out medical treatment activities, to work hard to become good medical professionals, doctors and officers who are skilled in their respective fields, through continuously studying and researching the medical sciences that are changing with the times, to make efforts and be dutiful in nation building tasks with the sense of nationalistic spirit in the assigned units and respective regions besides carrying out health care activities with their medical knowledge education, and to work hard to become good medical scientists who the State and the Tatmadaw count on with noble attitude, helping heart and strong strength of bravery.
After that, the Senior General received the salute of the cadet columns and left the military parade.
After the military parade, the Senior General met the cadets who received outstanding awards at the reception hall of the Defence Services Medical Academy and gave a congratulatory speech.
In his speech, he said he shared pride and joy with the parents of outstanding cadets for the cadets who won such outstanding awards. The cadets won such awards because of their hard work with aims, perseverance, diligence, effort and adherence to self-control throughout the course. As the cadets have kept working hard, having passed high school education with high scores, and completed university education at the academy, they are to continue to maintain such good basics in order that their ambition will not be lost and disappear on the journey of their life. Only if there is effort, will there be improvement in life. It is necessary for the cadets to continuously make efforts and keep maintaining their self-control and good behavior. The cadets are to know and understand the gratitude of their parents and teachers who have fed and taught them from childhood to university. They have to repay a good deed in return for the gratitude of teachers of the academy who taught them knowledge and skills, the Tatmadaw and the State by acting as a good soldier and physician, valuing themselves for further improvement, and being dutiful in assigned duties with loyalty. They are to behave well in building their life to become winners with good ethics for a human being.
