THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

238 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
Captain Dr Abbas bin Haji Alias 9
He was from the Mobile Field Ambulance Unit of the FMS Volunteer
Force and was a soft-spoken and gentle person. He had treated me at
the Kuala Lumpur Malay Hospital before my discharge on 5 December
1941, three days before the Japanese Invasion. After the capitulation of
Singapore, KMM members loyal to me found him hiding in a Malay
kampung in Singapore and brought him to KMM House, where I
introduced him to all my friends as ‘my doctor’. No one dared to make
him do any work. Later, I gave him a pass to go home with Captain Salleh
bin Sulaiman.
Fully aware of the importance of knowledge, especially among Malays,
when Captain Dr Abbas left Singapore I handed to him volumes of
expensive medical books found in KMM House. The books would be
better off with Dr Abbas than left to the chaos of war. He returned to
Malaya on a goods train, like thousands of others, and arrived in Kuala
Lumpur two and a half days later. He was given his old job. He later led
the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party (PAS), but eventually lost the leadership.
Recently (in 1976), he came to look for me in my Matang home. He was
the only person who took the trouble to look for an old man who had
once assisted him. Memories are often in short supply in times of peace.
I have also received a letter of appreciation from General Tan Sri
Abdul Hamid bin Bidin, former Chief of the Malaysian Armed Forces
and President of the Ex-Servicemen’s Association. 10 Readers should
decide if Ibrahim’s claims that he saved these people from being killed
by the Japanese are valid. I was the one who, upon handing over KMM
leadership to Ibrahim on 17 February 1942 had reminded everyone, “Do
not cause harm to any educated Malay. There are only a handful of them.
An educated person is worth a thousand of the uneducated.”
KMM’s Role in Singapore
KMM helped soldiers and Volunteers in difficulties out of a natural motivation
to help others, especially the Malays. I had done my share despite
knowing my actions could arouse Japanese suspicions. But sad to say,
there were two KMM members who became too pro-Japanese because
of greed. Their craving for wealth eroded whatever nationalistic sentiments
and camaraderie they once had. They no longer remembered the
sacred word Merdeka (Independence). When the Japanese ordered Malay
soldiers to assemble at Farrer Park, they blindly followed the order.
It was a blessing that many KMM members on my side were willing
to carry out my orders although these countermanded that from the