MALAYSIAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION

           MPA, 40 YEARS AND COUNTING
                                                   On the occasion of  the 40th anniversary of MPA's Founding on 19 March 1977
                                 

 Malaysian Psychiatric Association -THE EARLY YEARS

Introduction - from MPA website original written by MPDeva 

It was not an easy beginning for the MPA. It was not that the first meeting called by Dr. M P Deva of the Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Malaya to discuss the formation of the Malaysian Psychiatric Association in November 1976 was not well attended at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur. In fact it was just the opposite, it attracted 17 psychiatrists out of the approximately 25 in the country, and other staff. It was a trying time for psychiatry in Malaysia with about a dozen psychiatrists out of perhaps 25 leaving or planning to leave for greener pastures down under. The mental hospitals were overflowing with well over 8000 patients in conditions that would have been unthinkable today. The Hospital Bahagia had pioneered in 1970s a Day Care in Ipoh where the institutionalized mentally ill were bussed several times a week to an empty private home for and outing, games a sample of life outside the mental hospital. The 2 year Masters in Psychological Medicine programme of University of Malaya which started in 1973, graduated its second batch of one psychiatrist, and was facing a bleak drought of new trainees. But perhaps the bigger immediate threat was from among a few of the profession and many in one other specialty who felt that the MPA as a concept was not a wise one, as there was already a Neuro-psychiatric society of the Malaysian Medical Association. Luckily the majority of the psychiatrists prevailed and the MPA was formally inaugurated by the Honourable Minister of Health Tan Sri Lee Siok Yew on 19th March 1977 at Hospital Bahagia, Ulu Kinta. Dato Seri M. Mahadevan was elected as the MPA's First protem President with Dr. M P Deva as protem Hon Gen Secretary. The election was followed by a scientific session on The Move to Community Psychiatry in Malaysia.

The Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta Quadrangle where MPA was 

launched by Hon Minister of Health Malaysia

Tan Sri Lee Siok Yew on 17 March 1977

        From humble beginnings First MPA President Tan Sri M Mahadevan at MPA Scientific meeting 
                                 Hospital KL T.A.R. Neuro Psychiatric Institute Lecture theatre in late 1970s

The Malaysian Psychiatric Association was formed in 1977 to fulfil a strongly desired need to improve the sad state pf psychiatry in Malaysia then stigmatised poorly developed and very poorly staffed by qualified psychiatrists.The psychiatric patient was treated in the large forbidding and overcrowded mental hospitals or in cells in district hospitals in ways unbecoming of the needs for humane care all solemnly declared but only a few did practice, Then as now in the 21st Century, stigma of mental illness was blamed on the public while the custodians did little to improve the lot of the mentally ill. Administrative and budgetary reasons over rode the inhumanity of care.By 1975 the first 3 of home grown psychiatrists with the 2 year Masters degree in Psychological Medicine from University of Malaya had graduated and psychotropic medicines were widely available. However the pyramidal structure of care that sent patients from smaller towns to Emergency Treatment Units and  Mental Health Units and Regional Mental Health Units (ETU, MHU and RMHU) and finally to the Mental Hospitals did little to improve the quality of care as diagnoses, doses of medicines and rehabilitation needed much improvement. The MPA aimed to bring together most of the 25 psychiatrists in Malaysia then with a population of  about 16 million, to discuss ways to improve training and thereby services that often resembled those in the pictures that follow. 

ETU

MHU

As UKM and UM had the only Departments of psychiatry in the local oniversity and HKL had a large general Hospital Psychiatric Unit in the TAR Institute of Neuro Sciences the 3 departments started holding regular psychiatric meetings to discuss common problems in psychiatric practice, host lectures by visiting psychiatrists and external examiners at the Nurses Lecture hall of HKL and the mini lecture theatre of the TAR Institute. 

In 1983 6 years after MPA was formed the ASEAN Federation for Psychiatry and Mental Health that was formed in 1981 in Bangkok under its Founding President Professor R Kusumanto Setyenegoro of Indonesia (also after 10 years in the making) requested MPA to host the 4th ASEAN FORUM ON CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY.

This was then the only ASEAN wide conference in psychiatry and it was only in 1983 that the present Cycle of ASEAN Congresses in Psychiatry started (currently in its 16th Session)

MPA despite it having only 2 child and Adolescent Psychiatrists and limited funds took up the challenge and held a successful meeting in IMR, in KL..

The first publication of MPA 1983

The MPA continued its scientific meetings in turn  in UMMC and UKM and HKL especially as more overseas speakers as examiners were coming to KL at the start of UKM's postgraduate Psychiatry training  but no national Malaysian Scientific conference  was organised . In 1988 Assoc Professor M P Deva from University  of Malaya  organised the First Malaysian Conference on Psychological Medicine -  thus began the current series of the biennial and now annual MCPM under MPA - currently in its 20th session. The First MCPM was held in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya in KL.

                                            Pictures of Opening of First MCPM

                









    



           

                       The Audience at First MCPM in UM 1988 January



                                                


                        Associate Professor M Subramaniam the First Malaysian to Qualify as a Psychiatrist

                                       ( from UK in 1961) presenting a paper at at 1st MCPM  at UM 

                                 MPA members at Conferences
                                  A Picture Gallery




                                

2nd MCPM - the first to be held in a hotel, KL

after 1st MCPM in UMMC, MPA agreed to host future MCPMs

                               

4th BGM, MPA 

 

                            5th MCPM in Senai, Johor

                   Presidents of MPA, left to right M P Deva. Tan Sri M Mahadevan, Prof Ramli Dr Jeyarajah
                                                                      at 5th MCPM in Senai

          MPA Fund Raising Meeting for Tsunami Relief work in Aceh in Kota Kinabalu 2005

                   MPA Members at 1981  forming of AFPMH, Bangkok

                               

                FIRST ASEAN CONGRESS OF PSYCHIATRY 1987 Bangkok

        MPA-WAPR sponsored  First Asia Pacific Congress of Psychosoacial Rehabilitation in KL 1997

                Launching of AUD Asian Union Against Depression at MCPM 1998

       KUALA PILAH IN HISTORY - BLOG 21

              QUIET CENTENARY - Fading Memories of 

  THE CINEMA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IN KP

                      The Pangung Wayang Story 1916-2016

In these days of Television, Video, Multimedia few remember or care to know....

that just 60 years ago Kuala Pilah had no TV. In 1956 TV was a concept only heard of in the rich countries of north America and Europe . TV reached Malaysia in 1964. But Films were already known even in KP probably around 1916 or earlier. Yes 1916 !! cannot believe it . Well I could be wrong perhaps it was a live entertainment or wayang that opened its doors on Jalan Yam Tuan or perhaps called Second Street in KP those days. The Lister Road of the the early 1900s was earlier called Cart Street then Main Road. Proof of the pangung wayang  ?

                                          Pangung wayang 1916 clearly marked on this building
                                                   on Jalan Yam Tuan still stands today 2016 !

But later and particularly after the Second World War, that I remember, there was open air (not Drive In) screening of Health and Information Department fulms on days with clear skies on this padang that is no more. This 1940s picture of a Union Omnibus   No N 123 is alongside the Padang that now houses shops  and a bank and the Majlis Daerah KP, and behind the padang is the Kanthasamy Kovil .

                                     

Kanthasamy Kovil 

Crowds like these were treated to Malayan Film Unit films  in open air padangs and screened by mobile screening teams 

Huge crowds of towns folk would  gather on Saturday nights to view free screening of films mostly  government information films including ones on the evils of the communist insurgency or bandits as the Communist Terrorists (CTs) were called then. Also screened were health related films such as how to prevent malaria and spread of TB or water borne diseases and importance of washing vegetables, washing hands and clean toileting habits. Many of these latter short films were cartoons and kept children laughing .Families brought mats and cloth to lay on the grass to watch these films as no chairs were provided. Refreshments in the form of  ice water stalls and hawkers selling snacks such as roasted squid, cut fruits and rojak sarong did a roaring trade. The next morning the padang was littered with paper (not plastic) slippers and rubbish of the night before. Those were the early film shows in KP.

                               Pearl Theatre   Advertisement from 1951 TMS school Magazine

The advent of real films were screened in the theatre a 2 shop lot space on Jalan Yam Tuan( (illustrated above in 2 pictures) in the 1920s or so were largely movies such as Charlie Chaplin Slap stick comedies with music and subtitles  but no speech which was followed by the revolution of Talkies later where the  actors actually spoke ! The films were screened in the then Sun Cinema which later post war became the Pearl Theatre (in the Pangung wayang). The theatre had a main hall and a circle on the first floor and unlucky late comers had to put up with pillars that split the view of the screen  . The projection room was higher than the circle seats and one could easily see the smoke from numerous cigarettes which was the norm those days. When one returned fron a night out at the cinema ones clothes smelled strongly of tobacco. There was no air conditioning those days and coming out of the cinema after a show was like entering an air conditioned town !

Then in 1953 or so the town had its first purpose built cinema - the Majestic . It too initially was not air conditioned but that was added later. Compared to a 2  shop house Pearl in the Pangung wayang  this was luxurious and much larger and no pillars, and a huge screen that could show the then state of the art Cinemascope films. If one could not afford the first class tickets on the first floor one had to put up with the second class seats further back of the ground floor or the still poorer and children had to look practically up straining their necks from seats nearest the huge screen ! 

A lot of English, Chinese , Malay and Tamil films were shown an on weekends the thrillers brought out everyone who was anyone in tpwn. The Majestic was a Meeting place  too for all in KP.

The big cinema chains then were Shaw Brothers owned by Run run Shaw and Runme Shaw out of Singapore and the Cathay  chain which was the smaller of the two. The Majestic was however an independent cinema and was soon losing out in the showing of the very latest and better films. soon the Shaw Brothers entered KP and the Cinema became the REX.  The Rex and Pearl ruled the Cinema in KP but the clearly weaker Pearl soon closed down and became a large clothing abd department store. The advent of TV and soon the VCD (Video Casette) for rent shops offering a huge variety of Fils and serials especially in Chinese like Kung Fu,  La Cha  soon drove even the Shaw's Rex to close. this was a nation wide phenomenon and indeed the winds of electronics drove cinemas to the wall. Cineplexes and new release movies in theatres were largely superceded by CDs and DVDs and the huge theatre buildings became department stores of simply left to decay

The Majestic became the Rex and is now the Gedung Minang department store

SCHOOL CINEMAS

 The cinema held a great attraction to all as a primary source of entertainment but particularly the young  who saved pocket money of 5 and 10 cents those days  to get a third class ticket (with straining necks and tobacco stained shirts) to watch John Wayne or war films.

This advertisement  in the TMS Annual of the 50s shows a popular Bell and Howell 16 mm projector that TMS had for showing educational films like Julius Caesar, Macbeth that reinforced History and Literature classes those days. Films were carefully chosen by the school teachers who also screened  the fils as projectionists. The ticket price was 10 cents and films were screened in the School Hall where all important functions such as Speech day were held.

A 1952 selection of popular films suitable for Schools screening 

RADIO

In those days the standard entertainment was not the Film but in fact the Radio.

In fact pre World wat II, the radio was already available firly widely in Malaya - in medium wave  and overseas services of VOA and BBC on short wave bands. These were censored during the Japanese Occupation and initially infact all Radios were confiscated from the residents of Kuala Pilah and other towns so that no different news other than those sent out by the Japanese Occupation administration.the radios were returned but sealed to only receive officially authorised news and entertainment.  When the war ended the radios were widely available and people allowed to recieve even short wave signals from all over the world . Being under the British military administration and later colonial administration, the BBC broadcasts wewre re broadcast on special occassions such as the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953 and every December the King's Speech  or Queen's Speech to the Commonwealth. as loyal citizens of the Commonwealth and British administration many in KP too listened to these speeches on their radio sets. Today the radio set is all but forgotten and in fact the radio is only heard on the car one drives.  Those days cars were uncommon and none had radios fitted. 

For those who have never seen a state of the art Radio set, here are some sold in KP and services and repaired....(from TMS school Magazines of the 1950s)

The Schools following the example of Radio and its usefulness in mass communication had a public address system or a series of loud speakers to cover the corridors of the classrooms of the Schools. TMS ad a PA system  and it was occassion used to address the staff and students and rarely used to broadcast radio programmes.

                                                                devamp37@gmail.com

        TUANKU MUHAMMAD SCHOOL 

                        TMS CENTENARY 

                                1914-2014        

                   

                       A TRIBUTE TO TMS TEACHERS 

  THR

OUGH THE YEARS - from the TMS School Magazines 

                                                1947-74

       With grateful thanks to all who contributed to decades of                             THE ANNUAL and later the TiMeS

                       so that these invaluable records of our

                        TEACHERS AND HEADMASTERS

                                     will be with us forever.

A drawing of TMS probably in the 1930s taken from 1964 TiMeS

    

                                       The first TMS brick and concrete school near present

                                       KP Stadium Bahau Road - Built probably in the 1920s

  For a record of the FIRST TMS a wooden bungalow used as the1914  TMS school not far from this building( which) still stands  see the first TMS Headmaster MR JW Moore's  report in the History of TMS below. A detailed content of Mr Moore's letter of 1935 describing his arriving to take up the position of HM  will follow in a later Blog by author.

. 

                                                  History of TMS from 1964 Annual Magazine

 

Earliest Picture of TMS taken in 1937 with school girls at a multicultural dance

(from Author's personal collection )

1946 School Certificate Class with staff and Mr G E D Lewis

 as first post-war Headmaster

TMS 1950 or so - note only the School and Hostel are there with a forested Bukit Temensu backdrop

TMS STAFF of 1964 with profiles

TUANKU MUNAWIR STAFF from First School Magazine 1970

TMS IN PICTURES THROUGH THE CENTURY

TMS  from a Drawing probably in the 1930s

TMS 1950s

TMS 1990

TMS 2012

TMS 2013

Col (B) Dr Biswajit Das Class of 1964 and author Class of 1958 in front of the 

TMS Centennial Tower

TMS on 16 April 2016

                                                                           TMS 2016 16 April



                                  

         Col. (B) Dr BISWAJIT DAS class of 1964 TM) and Author, Class of 1958 TMS at Centennial

                     

                                                       

                                                                             


                   An Appeal to TMS students past and present
The pictures and notes in this blog would not have been possible without copies of TMS school magazines. Unfortunayely I heard that school magazines may not be in print as in the 1950s- 60s.

If you have school magazines of old any year, I will be grateful for your contribution  of copies of the same to enrich this record of our Alma Mater. Please contact through e-mail below.
Terima Kasih !

devamp37@gmail.com

class of 1949-58