THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Arrest and Interrogation 299
was a Malayan Japanese who told us not to add insult to injury by
pleading softly, “Please don’t rub it in.” A rich Chinese towkay’s son
appeared the least troubled, but this young man was later imprisoned for
ten years for serving the Japanese Police in Ipoh. This kind soul always
shared his supply of Ipoh’s famous ground-nuts with me. I started to crack
jokes and spin a yarn or two, mostly those I heard from my good friend
Captain Mohd Salleh when I was working as an Agricultural Assistant
in Tapah.
We heard the BMA was searching for men involved in producing
anti-British posters found all over Ipoh town. Although there were more
than enough policemen to maintain law and order, they could not detect
where these posters were produced. It was actually just next door to our
lock-up where a detainee was working hand in hand with a night-soil
carrier. But how the material and finished products were slipped in and
out of the station no one knew. I then remembered reading a story about
Russian leader Stalin printing Tsar paper currency underneath a circus
ground to avoid Police detection. “Where there is a will, there is a way”,
the Malay proverb goes. When I was later moved to the Batu Gajah
Prison, the poster-making detainee was already there. So was the ‘night
soil’ (human toilet excrements) carrier collaborating with him, in the same
erstwhile profession.
Interrogated by British Field Security Service Chief
Every day, two or three detainees were taken out to meet the Field
Security Service (FSS) Chief in his office located near the Police Station.
But there was one detainee hauled out once too often. Soon enough, it
was my turn to be summoned. My heart thumped wildly. I was escorted
out by an incredibly courteous British Sergeant, who did not treat me like
a criminal. In fact we had a nice chat about Malaya’s weather compared
to India where he was once stationed. This polite Sergeant led me to an
office where I was told to sit down opposite a Military Intelligence
Captain who started to ask me questions on certain persons I knew in
Taiping. It looked like I was going to be his source of information.
Among those he enquired about were Hanif Sulaiman, a KMM member
accused of being a Japanese spy and supposedly linked to an Indian
Muslim, Mamak Osman. Mamak Osman, owner of the British Malaya
Bakery in Taiping, was also a suspect. I asked the FSS Captain, “What
do you want to know about this kind person?” He shouted at me, “What
kind person! He was a Japanese spy!” He claimed Mamak Osman was a
good friend of Hanif Sulaiman and a pre-War Japanese dentist Matsu.