THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

158 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
He was then already Ibrahim’s brother-in-law. Who dared offend him!
I also heard KMM members like Mustafa Kamil and Sulung bin Chik
complain that their pockets had been inspected by Onan, who suspected
some KMM members of working for British Intelligence, or the Special
Branch. Onan was arrested together with Ibrahim just before the Japanese
invasion of Malaya, but was released after spending a night in a lock-up.
Ibrahim lied to the British that Onan was merely his brother-in-law. During
the one night in custody, Ibrahim had the opportunity to inform Onan of
KAME’s secret insignia, a hexagon with the letter ‘F’ in it.
According to Riwayat Kinta, 17 when the Japanese invaded Malaya,
Onan played a very important role with the help of his childhood friends.
He was recognised as a leader by the Japanese government as he had
pledged KMM members would serve as a Japanese Fifth Column. He was
the one who said KMM had made arrangements with the Japanese in
Bangkok to liberate Malaya. He said Abdul Kadir Adabi from Kelantan
had signed an agreement as propaganda to make Malays partial towards
Japan. According to the book, Onan was bourgeois and a fascist. After
Japan took over Malaya, he moved to Singapore, where he married the
adopted daughter of Tengku Abdul Kadir. After Japan’s surrender, he had
no choice but to flee to Java to seek safety from British wrath.
Let me continue with the story. After Onan met the Japanese military
officers at St Michael’s Institution in Ipoh, he left for Taiping, where he
and several Fujiwara Kikan Officers went to see Pak Chik Ahmad, who
knew I was staying with my father in Matang. Onan, Pak Chik Ahmad
and several uniformed Japanese officers, armed with swords, rifles and
pistols then visited me. Luckily, my wife and children were in hiding
across the Larut River. I was ‘invited’ to go with them to Taiping. I was
no coward, but neither was I a fool. The bravest of men would have gone
along. Was Malaya not in confusion and at war with the Japanese in
control? A Malay proverb advises that “the one without a gun should give
way.” The story of my movements with the Japanese from Taiping down
to Singapore follows.
I loathe writing this negative side of KMM’s history, and about Onan,
because I knew his family except for the sister who married Ibrahim
Yaakub. Onan’s mother died disconsolate with her son’s unacceptable
behaviour. Had Ibrahim not written the 12-page letter accusing me of
being an inhumane torturer, I would have allowed these pages from the
past to die with me, lost in time. But Ibrahim’s letter, with copies to very
respectable Malaysian citizens, has forced me to defend my name.
In his 27 th column in the ‘Reflections of Pak Sako’ series (Mingguan
Malaysia, 18 July 1976), Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako) wrote, “Not