THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

318 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
32
Arrested Again (1946)
A day after returning to my hill-farm from the Batu Gajah Prison, I tried
to resume my temporarily short-circuited life by assuming my paternal
role. Although my wife had cared for our little ones to the best of her
ability during my imprisonment, I found Ayesha, Hendun, Adelain and
Dinah in need of medical attention, requiring at least a dose of deworming
mixture. With some money from the sale of our farm produce,
we travelled to Taiping town to buy some medicine, and spent the rest
on food.
Not long after, my father delivered a copy of Chikgu Abu Samah’s
letter – the very one the British Military Intelligence Chief had waved in
front of me. With tears brimming in my eyes, I read the precious document
that had secured my freedom, moved by commendations from a
man I had helped in all sincerity. At least, there was one Malay, among
the many I had assisted, bold enough to repay my deeds by writing a letter
explaining the truth. At that time, the majority of Malays on the British
Government’s payroll were deeply afraid of getting entangled with someone
like me, a man branded a Japanese spy.
The Dutch Intelligence Officer
Late one afternoon, a jeep stopped near the bridge, the nearest point it
could get to my decrepit hut. During the Japanese Occupation, I was
apprehensive of every Japanese vehicle that came anywhere near my hut.
Now, I suffered pangs of anxiety as a white man’s vehicle came within
earshot of my farm. A uniformed white man and a rotund Malay boy
emerged from the jeep. They entered my hut, which in spite of being
propped up by several coconut palm trunks, was leaning dangerously to
one side. Without waiting for an invitation, the pair seated themselves
on my screw-pine mat. Being a farm hut, with no wall separating the
sitting area from the kitchen, the two visitors could see my wife in the
kitchen preparing lunch.