Dr Maung Maung: Gentleman, Scholar, Patriot

U Thein Maung, Chief Justice of the Union

158 Section III, J, Profile U THEIN MAUNG, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNION Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Thein Maung, Chief Justice of the Union” in The Guardian II, no. 11 (September 1955): 25–29, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung. Foreign observers once laughed at young, independent Burma, and enjoyed the laughing. In 1949 when the Burmese government was confined more or less in embattled Rangoon, the foreign cynics cleverly dubbed it as the “Rangoon Government.” Prophets of doom foretold an early end to the career of the young Republic. Things did indeed look dark and danger was always desperately near. The Burma Army was sending its handful of loyal men hopping about from place to place saving a town here or expelling rebels from entrenched positions there, fighting at Insein and halting the columns which were thrusting down from the north on the outskirts of Pegu; fighting on the road from Prome; fighting in the blue hills of the Shan state; fighting in the streets of Mandalay. The political leaders and the government were busy building and bolstering the will to fight, to resist, to hold on. The nation had to be roused to extinguish the fires and to restore 03J฀DrMaung.indd฀฀฀158 2/28/08฀฀฀2:19:19฀PM U Thein Maung, Chief Justice of the Union 159 peace and calm within one year. The task was huge and everyone was busy, going about the business by regular and irregular methods. Only Justice was calm and unflustered, standing like a rock in troubled seas. From the Supreme Court and the High Court came the calm judicial decisions, unswayed by the emotions and passions of the hour. The highest traditions of democratic justice were studiously upheld. Unhurried, uninfluenced, independent Judges were keeping true only to the vows that they made when they first accepted the State’s trust for administering justice, setting men free whom the harassed Executive had taken into preventive custody, protecting the liberties and rights of the citizen the judicial way — while all the time the guns boomed in anger outs de Rangoon. Even the murderer of the country’s hero, Aung San, was given a patient hearing at the trial and on successive appeals to the highest tribunals. Foreign observers who laughed at the “Rangoon Government” never made bold to laugh at the Union Judiciary. The Judiciary was a mighty pillar on which democracy leaned in those precarious times, an asset to the Union, a great widowdressing for Burma to the outside world. And U Thein Maung, then Chief Justice of the High Court, now Chief Justice of the Union, has always been a major part of that Judiciary. x x x x x The man born to be Chief Justice might well have ended up as a taikthugyi1 had not a dacoity saved him from the fate. U Po San and Daw Thaung, the parents, were hereditary taikthugyis in Kyaunggone, Paungde township, and young Thein Maung (born July 17, 1890) seemed destined to inherit the family position. But fortunately, the family was visited and plundered by a gang of dacoits, and the parents decided to move into town and make a break with the village. Thein Maung thus went to school in Paungde and commenced his brilliant career as a student. He allowed himself no distractions. He learned and read, always thorough and studious, unrelenting. Scholarships and success showered upon him. He passed the Calcutta University entrance examinations as the only Burman placed in the first division and won a scholarship for the University where he took a first class honours degree in Pali. He refused an offer of the 03J฀DrMaung.indd฀฀฀159 2/28/08฀฀฀2:19:19฀PM 160 DR MAUNG MAUNG: Gentleman, Scholar, Patriot Post-Graduate Jubilee scholarship to take a research degree in Pali at the Calcutta University, to go to Downing’s College in Cambridge and Lincoln’s Inn to prepare himself for the Bar. At the College and Lincoln’s Inn, he kept himself down to a rigid course of study, spending most of his time in the libraries. His contemporaries were discovering England and life and finding it exciting; Thein Maung was discovering the laws and finding their magic and their drama equally exciting. His contemporaries were sending home for money and consistently failing their exams; Thein Maung was passing consistently...