THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

116 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
reckless courage while fighting against the Italians in Tripoli. In World
War I, he distinguished himself in the defence of the Gallipoli Peninsula
against the Allied Forces. Mr Mann, who had seen action in World War
I as a British Captain, had narrated stories of Turkish valour. “No one
race in this world is braver than the Turks!” he said.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk steered his country from oppressive feudalism
to a modern republic. When he banned the fez as unsuitable for modern
Turks, Malays in Malaya began to discard the headgear they had once
been so proud of. In pursuing a policy of modernisation, Mustafa adopted
the Latin alphabet. A free nation should not use the script of its former
colonisers. Turkish women were given the right to vote and to stand for
elections; a woman was no longer her husband’s property. Turks were
also not encouraged to perform their pilgrimage in Mecca from 1918 until
its economy recovered in 1946.
I was also moved by Mahatma Gandhi’s selfless sacrifice in South
Africa and his ‘passive resistance’ against government enactments. After
his return to India in 1914, he succeeded in moving the Indian masses to
rise against the British, using a weapon never used before, that of ‘nonviolence
and civil disobedience’. In 1934, he began trekking on a 200-
mile march with only 78 followers, but ended up with determined
thousands. Gandhi, his wife and followers were whipped and tortured,
but that did nothing to their stalwart spirits. I still remember his acerbic
words to judges, legal officers and Indian Civil Service Officers: “God,
save my mother India from these people who are nothing more than
careerist politicians.”
Gandhi was one fighter the British could not tame with the usual array
of bait – titles, riches and women. He wore no shirts on which medals
could be pinned; money was pointless to him as he had simple needs;
and beautiful women meant nothing as he had openly declared celibacy.
I was distraught to hear that his life was ended by a bullet at a time when
India was on the threshold of Independence.
Another Indian leader I admired was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who,
despite a wealthy family background, chose to fight for the downtrodden
in the name of ‘country and people’. Glimpses of World History is an
extraordinary chronicle by an Asian who had mastered the English
language magnificently. This incredible history book, written in detention,
is an unforgettable collection of letters to his daughter Indira. Stories of
the tortures meted out to him in detention brought tears to my eyes. To a
nationalist like me, this book by Nehru was like a bible of nationalism.
Why? His philosophy “A healthy person or nation thinks about its past,
but acts for its future,” is a reflection of his sagacious outlook.