THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Courageous Fighting Malay Men 241
good relations with the Japanese to ensure my activities to help my own
people would go unnoticed under their noses.
Malay Regiment Petition
After Britain re-established itself in 1945, I was jailed in two lock-ups
and in Batu Gajah Prison. My father visited me several times. Although
he tried to hide it, his face bore the saddest expression. His heart was
shattered. My older brother Alli lost his life to the MPAJA a year earlier
and my younger brother Yahaya was killed by the same party just a
couple of months before I was detained. And now, I was languishing in
a British prison.
Without my knowledge, my father had travelled 250 miles in a timber
lorry to meet Malay soldiers at the Malay Regiment Camp in Port
Dickson. There he met Major Ibrahim Alla Ditta MC to inform him of
my misfortune and his own pain at seeing me in jail after having lost
two sons in the space of one year. With the help of Major Ibrahim Alla
Ditta and Sgt Harun bin Haji Musa (whom I had saved from a heap of
corpses), 400 signatures of soldiers whom I had helped, directly or
indirectly, were collected in a petition. This petition was sent to the British
Field Security Service (FSS) Chief, appealing that I not be killed and
instead be released immediately. They even suggested an award for my
good deeds towards war victims. I had no knowledge of the petition
containing 400 names and signatures until 17 November 1975, thirty years
later, when I met Major Ibrahim Alla Ditta and his friends.
After the petition’s receipt, I was taken to meet an FSS officer in
Kuala Lumpur where I was rained with hundreds of questions, but he did
not care to disclose that a petition had reached the FSS desk. He did not
congratulate me or express any appreciation for my help to so many
people. Typical colonial attitude! All he wanted to know was how many
British lives I had saved. It was as if the lives of hundreds of Malays
were unworthy. Saving the lives of hundreds of Malay soldiers was not
all that impressive to him! In Red Star over Malaya (p. 271), Dr Cheah
Boon Kheng recorded that: “Mustapha Hussain was subsequently taken
into custody, but several months later after petitions were made to the
BMA from former members of the Malay Regiment whose lives he had
saved from the Japanese, he was released.”
Notes
1. Translator’s Note: My father’s failure to save the lives of Capt. Raja Aman Shah
and several other Malay officers weighed heavily on his mind until he drew his last