THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

250 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
Sutan Jenain in the car, we were stopped and checked all along the route
by roadblock sentry guards. In Kuala Lumpur, I wrote a letter to M.N.
Othman to release Raja Ahmed Hisham. Another letter, from Major
Fujiwara, was given to Raja Ahmed Hisham for his safety and security.
Sutan Jenain, who helped to send the car, managed to offer Raja Ahmed
Hisham a small piece of advice, “Please learn to love your own people!”
Attempting to Set Up a KMM Youth Front in Ipoh
In Ipoh, en route to Matang, I found KMM and Perak Malay Youth
Association members under the leadership of A. Talib bin Haji Ahmad
residing in the Ipoh Nurses Hostel. I informed Talib of the formation of
KMM Youth Front in Kuala Lumpur before KMM’s move to Singapore.
He agreed with me that it was time to again galvanise our youth into one
which could one day be employed against the Japanese. We should set
up a volunteer corps, which would include FMS Volunteers (already
trained) around Ipoh. But, no longer under Fujiwara Kikan’s umbrella,
we had to seek the approval of Perak’s Japanese Governor or Military
Chief, or both.
We approached senior Japanese officers in Ipoh to express our plan
to ‘strengthen’ Japanese defence with Malay youths. They replied, “It is
not necessary. We have enough fighting men!” I understood their concern
– they feared this body would one day be used to oppose them. I made
this observation based on my experience with the Japanese and what
happened in other occupied territories. Not long after, I was told the young
men residing in the nurses’ hostel were evicted. That angered me.
Notes
1. Ahmad Boestamam’s statement is appended to the Malay version of my memoirs
(Mustapha Hussain, 1999: Appendix 23, pp. 634-6).
2. Mohd Mustafa’s statement is appended to the Malay version of my memoirs
(Mustapha Hussain, 1999: Appendix 24, pp. 637-46).
3. Translator’s Note: More than three months after leaving his family in hiding in a
jungle fringe behind my grandparents’ home, my father returned with $10 in his
pocket. Even though my mother was told the chances of my father returning alive
were slim after he was ‘taken’ away by armed Japanese Officers with just the clothes
on his back, my mother was hopeful. Her prayers were answered. My father returned
because he could not find in his heart the motivation “to serve a new colonial power
that did not comprehend Malay aspirations towards Independence.”