THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

124 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
everything. The Malay papers gave an apt example, “If a carpenter is
commissioned to build a house for someone, and is paid by the owner
when the work is done, what right has the carpenter to live with the owner
in the house that he did not own? He has already been paid, hasn’t he?”
Groups of Jawi Peranakan, people whose fathers were mostly Indians
in Penang or Arabs in Singapore, usually rich and influential, also put
forward the same claims as the immigrants. They demanded the opening
up of the Malay Administrative Service as they claimed to be Malays by
definition. In truth, only the poorer of these Jawi Peranakans, who suffered
the same fate as the poor Malays, had assimilated with the Malays.
These assertions prompted the Malay press, such as Utusan Melayu,
under the leadership of Abdul Rahim Kajai, to clarify that Jawi
Peranakans were not Malays in the true sense of the word. Those with
Indian forefathers were termed Darah Keturunan Keling (DKK), or of
Indian ancestry, while those with Arab ancestry were Darah Keturunan
Arab (DKA), or of Arab ancestry.
The Malay press went all out to inspire the Malays to unite, to uphold
Malay pre-eminence and the sovereignty of their homeland. Some called
on the British to protect Malay rights, reminding them that the Malays
were not “wild beasts to be hunted down by the immigrants.” They also
described the Indian claims as baseless; their hard work had already been
compensated for with wages! This war of words would have continued
had Japanese forces not invaded Malaya.
The Malay elite and bureaucrats, whom the common Malays hoped
would support the Malay cause, seemed to play dumb. If steps were not
taken quickly, the Malays would end up victims in their own homeland.
It was amidst these claims and counter-claims that a truly left political
party, with anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism as its
objectives, had to emerge. It had to be nationalistic and republican in
spirit; these were, indeed, the secret aspirations of the political body to
be formed.
Personally, I hoped this political body would constitute a vehicle to
free my homeland from the shackles of colonial rule, and to propel Malaya
into a new era when the people would enjoy freedom and independence.
It should be radical, encompassing a wide spectrum of progressive nationalist
tendencies, unlike the existing Malay Associations of Perak, Selangor
and Pahang, which were not only narrow minded, but pro-feudal and procolonial.