THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

338 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
not give any speeches because of the Malay Special Branch Police
Officer’s reminder. When asked to speak, I claimed to have a sore
throat; when asked to be included in a photograph, I pretended to need
the toilet.
When we set foot on Penang Island, a host of weathered jalopies
decorated with red and white flags were already waiting. These battered
cars belonged to Penang Malays, under the leadership of MNP Penang
chief Haji Harun bin Haji Putih. What a sad scene – these ancient cars
looked like blemishes against Penang’s lovely buildings and mansions,
all belonging to non-Malays. The old cars looked terribly out of place,
like squatters in a fabulous town. We moved towards Balik Pulau in the
old cars – honoured to have ferried valiant freedom fighters before
becoming junkyard scrap.
What we saw on both sides of the road made Rashid Maidin and I,
both talkative men, completely silent. Our mouths, usually eager to discuss
the plight of the Malays, were shut tight. What I saw wrung my heart.
So it must have been for Rashid. Malay homes were dilapidated huts with
leaky roofs and gaping holes in the walls. But the pertinent question that
struck us was, “How much rice did each house have, if any!” We both
shed silent tears. We stayed in Balik Pulau for two days.
Haji Harun bin Haji Putih 12
This tall and good-looking Balik Pulau MNP leader told us that many of
the people living in his area were from Acheh in north Sumatra, and found
the MNP struggle appealing because of the red and white flag. I met Haji
Harun again in 1955 and 1975. In 1975, when Chikgu Yusuf bin Ayub
and I visited him, he told us that after MNP was banned in 1948, he joined
the Malayan People’s Party. During and after the Malaysia-Indonesia
Confrontation he stayed in Indonesia for six years. He claimed to have
declared a Malayan Republic through the Indonesian Republic’s Radio
and the Indonesian press. He also said that President Soekarno had
supplied him with four food items every month.
Haji Harun claimed to have met Ibrahim Yaakub who chose to ignore
him. After the fall of Soekarno, Haji Harun was told to stop his activities.
Ibrahim then took him to a police station where he was detained to be
sent home to Malaysia. Out of shame to be sent home by Indonesian
authorities, he returned to Johore in a sampan via Pulau Bintan, but was
arrested and detained. On my last visit to Haji Harun, my wife and I left
some money and food for this nationalist who had fought with all his
heart. He died in 1977.