Section III - Dr Maung Maung and Biography

Summary

Despite the important role that Dr Maung Maung played in Myanmar's journalistic world from the cusp of independence until the time of the Revolutionary Council government, he wrote and spoke relatively infrequently on that aspect of his life. As discussed above, while his career as a newspaper editor was relatively short, less than a year, and perhaps occasionally between 1955 and 1958, these were very tumultuous times in Myanmar's history. Though he was a mere twenty-two years of age when he commenced his editorial career, he was responsible, under the direction of U Thant and with the assistance of Tawtha (jungle man) U Khin Maung, for one of Yangon's leading English language publications at a time when the world was trying to understand what a post-independence Myanmar would be like.

Dr Maung Maung clearly enjoyed that period and frequently retold the story of how the clerk of a newly appointed judge telephoned the paper on one occasion to complain that “The Honorable” had not been included in his title in an article about a foreign trip he was making. U Khin Maung told the man to complain to the Prime Minister and took two sips from his “amber medicine” (i.e., Scotch) bottle that apparently he had cause to frequent throughout the editorial day. Dr Maung Maung had no resort to his own medicine drawer. However, he managed to put in an edition of the paper a bit of doggerel that would deflate the pomposity of the most pretentious of judges.

His role in the founding of The Guardian magazine and eventual daily newspaper was also not insignificant. As he describes it, he and a group of friends pooled their resources to launch the venture in 1954, each buying 500 kyat worth of shares. Eventually the daily newspaper that they founded moved to the press owned by the Army-back Myawaddy press and Guardian Sein Win, who had previously worked for The Nation, was appointed editor. The Myawaddy press was backed by the Defence Services Institute (DSI).