THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Arrest and Interrogation 295
Meeting with Lt Col Peter G. Dobree in Kuala Kangsar and Arrest
As twilight descended upon us I reached Kuala Kangsar, about twentyfive
miles from Taiping. After shaking his hands, I told Chikgu Mohd
Isa to leave me there. This friend, although a minor player in the Malay
struggle for Independence, was loyal to our national cause. He reluctantly
left me with eyes almost brimming with tears. I walked towards a
two-storey wooden building on the left side of the road, just a short
distance beyond Kuala Kangsar District Office, now converted into Force
136 HQ under the supervision of Colonel Peter G. Dobree. 2 Upstairs, I
met Col Dobree to whom I tried to explain the objective of my visit. I
told him that KMM efforts to save Malays during the Japanese
Occupation were similar to what the IIL (Indian Independence League)
and the Overseas Chinese Association did to save their own people. Col
Dobree did not utter a word as his eyes scanned an ‘arrest on sight’ list 3
in his hand.
As his eyes travelled down the list of names ‘wanted’ by the British
Intelligence, I asked for a stick of Capstan No. 5 cigarette from a tin on
his desk. I had not smoked this brand for three years and eight months.
Were English cigarettes not the best in the world? Even Russian leaders
smoked English cigarettes! Reluctantly, he allowed me to take a stick.
He was still busily searching for my name. After some time, he caught
it, located almost at the top of the first page! Col Dobree sprung to his
feet, hardly believing that this slight Malay man standing in front of him
was one of the Malays most wanted by the British. Rather oddly, he did
not say much. Instead, he instructed the young Malay guerrillas surrounding
me to escort me to the Kuala Kangsar Police Station. These
young Malays needed no encouragement to push and prod me with their
rifles all the way to the Police Station, as if I was a common, despicable
criminal. This was the first time I saw pump guns.
Along the way, I seized the opportunity to ‘talk’ to the guerrillas
guarding me closely. I warned them not to be duped by white men.
Colonialists will always be colonialists! Only one young man responded
by telling me they were youths from the Lenggong and Grik area, and
had been living in the jungle for several months with Col Dobree. At the
Kuala Kangsar Police Station, I was roughly handed over to a policeman
who jotted down all my particulars in a logbook. I immediately recognised
a Police Inspector at his desk. At the height of the war in Kuala Lumpur,
when I was moving with the Fujiwara Kikan, he had approached me for
work. Now he pretended not to know me. I was shoved into a lock-up
on the ground floor of the station where I remained for several days. I