THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Batu Gajah Prison 311
soon after he learned how to handle arms, he bolted with one. He was
consequently arrested and detained by the Japanese, but their surrender
saved him from execution. I would love to meet this person who did a
lot for me in prison.
Here is my last tale about cigarettes. My friend Zakaria received a
bowl of rice and curry from home and invited me to join him. As he
scooped the rice and fish curry, he discovered a packet of Japanese
cigarettes under the rice. As he was a non-smoker, the pack was mine. I
was like a child lost in a candy store. I dried the soggy cigarettes in the
sun, waiting on the spot to make sure no warder found them or someone
else pinched them. I re-rolled the tobacco with newspaper and shared them
with my friends. Although the cigarettes tasted exactly like fish curry,
we smoked them and imagined they were ‘Kooa’.
Another dreadful torture was my craving for news of my family. Were
they well? Did they have enough food? Enough money? I was sure my
father would visit them. Should they be in danger, I was sure my father
would move them elsewhere. Sometimes I saw their faces in my dreams.
I was convinced that among the myriad stars that embellished the night
sky visible through my high window, one was our guardian star.
In the Batu Gajah Prison, I was ‘AT 86’ (‘Awaiting Trial 86’). I was
reduced to just two digits. Through the prison gate we saw civilians
passing by on bicycles, on foot and in cars. For us held captive, everyone
outside the prison looked happy. At least they were free. Needless to say,
we were constantly humiliated but we swallowed our hurt with grit. We
also worked hard to ensure that our friends’ spirits would not be too
severely dampened by despair and dejection.
Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Visit
Prison life was incredibly monotonous, except for one day in 1945 when
Lal Bahadur Shastri came from India to visit IIL (Indian Independence
League) and INA (Indian National Army) detainees. A famous lawyer in
India, he was later elected Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru. He died
in Tashkent and his body was taken home to India. Shastri was on a factfinding
mission; to gauge treatment meted out by the British to Indian
detainees, their crimes, charges against them and appropriate line of action
to defend them based on international law. I commented to my friends,
“See, India is interested to investigate the fate of their freedom fighters.
But who had come to see us Malay detainees?”
A friend, well versed in law, gave us some free advice. He said, “If
there are allegations, we should answer this way. ‘When the British