THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

294 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
30
Arrest and Interrogation (1945):
The Informer and the Bed Bugs
When things calmed down a little in Batu 20, I felt less uneasy to leave
my family. It was time for me to go to Taiping to settle my position as a
KMM leader with the newly installed British Military Administration
(BMA). Sadly, I bade my wife and four children goodbye. Would I ever
see them again? Maybe not! But I kept all anxieties buried deep within
me; they must not know. I went around to bid farewell to the kampung
folks who assured me they would keep an eye on my family. I thanked
everyone, regardless of race, for all their help. Sundry shop owners had
allowed my family to buy food on credit; Pak Chik Yassin and his many
wives had lightened my wife’s burden on the farm; brothers Buyung and
Ibrahim bin Lebai Mat and their mother were always making sure
strangers did not bother my family.
As soon as I arrived in Taiping, I sought my father, his baker friend
Mamak Osman and KMM member Chikgu Mohd Isa Sulaiman. 1 To them
I laid out my plans to seek safety for all KMM members but could not
move until the return of several KMM members dispatched to Kuala
Lumpur, under most difficult situations, to check on the fate of KMM
members there. After a short stay at Chikgu Mohd Isa’s house in the
Taiping Malay School compound, my awaited KMM friends returned
with the grim news that many KMM members in Kuala Lumpur had
been arrested and detained. I came up with a decision supported by the
three men; I would go to see Force 136’s British Officer to explain
KMM’s position and its involvement in the war. Little did the three
know what was running through my head. I might not be coming back
and if I could choose my death, I would prefer to be shot than hanged.
Accompanied by faithful Chikgu Mohd Isa, I travelled to Kuala Kangsar
in a Chinese man’s car. Malay folks who saw us in the car were aghast;
they thought the dreaded Bintang Tiga was hauling up Chikgu Mohd Isa
and me.