THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

222 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
was ignored. This happened because Mustapha had voiced his suspicion
over Japanese promises at KMM’s first meeting after KMM members
were released from prison.”
Saving Sergeant Harun
The next day 7 several KMM members and I were roaming the streets of
Singapore in search of Malay soldiers and volunteers who needed help.
At the Buona Vista Road battlefront, we saw many dead bodies, some
on top of each other, some strewn all over the place. What a nauseating
sight! In one corner we happened to chance across a Malay soldier with
dried blood caking his uniform trying to get up. It was a most pathetic
scene. He looked like a walking corpse. We rushed towards him and
carried him to a Malay village nearby where we asked a Javanese man,
Wak Tahir Karman, to do his best to save the soldier.
The soldier, Sergeant Harun bin Haji Musa (Regimental Number 588),
is now living in Batu 9, Trong, near Taiping, Perak. According to him,
when war broke out on 8 December 1941, he was a Corporal deployed
at Air Rajah Road Camp in Singapore in the First Company with Captain
J.T. Horsburgh as his Company Commander and Lt Nordin from Changkat
Jering, Perak as Platoon Commander.
Sergeant Harun was on duty at the Gap House Camp in Buona Vista
Road which was surrounded by a forest reserve. When the Japanese
infiltrated his post, hostilities broke out with rifles, machine guns, tommy
guns and hand grenades. Captain Horsburgh was shot and fell down next
to him. So did Private Ismail from Batu 20, Perak and Company ‘A’
Orderly Zakaria @ Mat bin Abu Bakar. Sergeant Harun was also shot
and when he lay unconscious, he was bayoneted several times and left
for dead. It was perhaps three days before he regained consciousness at
about the time we chanced upon him. Later, I went to see Sergeant Harun
at Wak Tahir’s house where I gave him and his wife a pass to return to
their home in Perak by train. Still in pain, his wife helped him on to the
goods train that took them safely home.
More on the War’s Tumultuous Aftermath in Singapore
One day, while I was listening to Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako)
deliver a public speech to a group of Singapore citizens torn asunder by
war, I noticed a boy selling food that was almost covered by giant blue
bottles. As I was deep in my thoughts about health hazards now faced by
the people, a man slapped my shoulder in a non-hostile manner. Startled,