THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Malay Poverty, Ganja and Speed 85
Ariffin took a snail, the biggest we could find, and as an experiment,
poured some salt inside it. Whitish foam and a small amount of fluid
oozed from the snail before it died. I recalled my mother using salt to
kill leeches that stuck to our legs after trips to our rubber smallholding.
Ariffin later sent a report on his salt experiment to his British boss in
Taiping.
Early the second morning, as instructed, Jamil and I were at another
designated location, Banir, also by 7.00 am. This time, Ariffin arrived
wearing a battered brown crash helmet. My second task was to inspect
the Banir Malay School’s vegetable farm. It was the British Government’s
education policy to encourage Malay schools to grow vegetables
and simple crops, and to instruct pupils on the rudiments of farming. After
inspecting the little vegetable farm, I gave a lecture on plants and botany.
I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, but regretted the fact that a shaky
time-worn blackboard was the sole teaching aid in the school.
Socially, I tried to befriend the kampung folk, but except for a handful,
they were bashful. Members of a billiard club welcomed me into their
fold, but I was brought up “not to enjoy any kind of gambling.” Others
offered a welcome to a Bagan Datuk secret society, with ‘special benefits’
and enjoyment, but I declined.
When I complained to Jamil that my salary was slow in coming,
Ariffin gave me $25 from his petty cash box without any query. Ariffin
was not that stiff after all, I thought. Upon receiving the money, I recalled
how we Malay Apprentices had borrowed money from Mr Eliathamby
at the Agricultural School. He would then deduct the amount we borrowed
plus interest from our next pay. He wore a perpetual smile that read, “You
are most welcome to borrow again.” I had also borrowed money from
the Agricultural School’s Sikh watchman at a monthly rate of ten per cent
interest. Those were the only times I borrowed money as I soon realised
what a bad habit it was.
Second Stint in the FMS Volunteer Force
Two convivial friends coaxed me into joining the FMSVF in Tapah. They
were the Magistrate, Captain Mohd Salleh bin Sulaiman, and Captain
Abdul Hamid Khan, an English schoolteacher who made a meteoric rise
to become Malaysia’s Education Minister. During the Japanese Invasion
of Malaya, I assisted the two men, as I will recount later.
Mohd Salleh and Abdul Hamid gave me every encouragement. For
example, they promised me an immediate promotion to Second Lieutenant
after Sergeant. Who did not want to look smart in an officer’s uniform?