THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

280 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
Work pressure and much climbing of stairs affected my muscles and
nerves so badly that KMM member Hanif Sulaiman had to massage me
while Lt Osman Daim had to walk on my body to relieve the pain. 13 I
am proud that I gave my all for the sake of my motherland.
In the Independent Malaya Constitution and KRIS Congress working
papers Dr Burhanuddin and I drafted in a secret room in St George’s
Institution in Taiping, not a sentence mentioned that Independent Malaya
would be declared simultaneously with Indonesia. The date 17 August
was no doubt the same, but Malaya would declare independence independently
through Penang Radio Station. Ibrahim would proclaim it in
Malay, with me announcing the sacred words in English.
I want to repeat that the objective of KRIS was not to integrate
Malaya with Indonesia but just to be under one union with each having
its own separate decision-making bodies. This was different from statements
made by Ibrahim who wanted Malaya and Indonesia to be
administered by one body. I daresay all this in contrary because it was
Dr Burhanuddin and I who slogged in July and August preparing working
papers for the KRIS Congress and an Independent Malaya Constitution.
I have remained a loyal and faithful friend of Ibrahim for thirty years,
from 1945-75, until the day I received that acerbic 14-paged letter accusing
me of arresting, detaining and torturing several Malays during the war in
Malaya. He knew full well who was responsible for this deplorable action.
While many in Malaya were making claims to be the first Malays to
demand Malaya’s Independence, I sent a photograph of Ibrahim in his
Malai Giyu Gun Lieutenant Colonel outfit to Ahmad Boestamam to be
published in Forum, but the photo was never returned. This photo,
smuggled into Malaya through Pulau Langkawi soon after my release
from Batu Gajah Prison in 1946, was hidden in the attic of Osman Bakery,
my father’s friend’s shop. I was afraid of being re-arrested should the
British ransack my house.
Ibrahim Yaakub Departs, 13 August 1945
A day or two after Soekarno made his brief stopover in Taiping, I invited
Ibrahim to lunch in my Batu 20 hut. As we sat down cross-legged on a
mat eating curried mouse-deer meat, we exchanged thoughts and views
on world events. As my legs were troubling me, it was decided that my
name be struck off the KRIS Congress delegation to Kuala Lumpur.
After lunch, as we descended my hut’s steps, made from round tree
trunks, we saw a huge American B-29 flying boldly while a Japanese
aircraft pretended to be hunting it down. It looked just like a puny sparrow