THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

374 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
Burhanuddin’s followers not behind me? Was there something I did not
know about? Unable to visit both states, I stayed at my stall and continued
to fry noodles, while other candidates zoomed about in cars in frenzied
campaigns to defend their party. I did not blame them; they were trying
to protect their fortresses from being taken over.
According to the press, the late Datuk Abdul Razak bin Datuk Hussein
(later Tun, second Prime Minister of Malaysia) was unwilling to contest
UMNO’s Presidency, but managed to persuade Tunku Abdul Rahman, a
Kedah prince, to do so. Tunku was a Public Prosecutor who was quite
unhappy with the way the British treated him. He was only allocated a
small office desk near some corridor and his Jalan Pekeliling (now Jalan
Tun Razak) quarters 3 was far from satisfactory.
The campaign was so intense that I began to feel that my safety was
in danger. I went to see Aziz Ishak to devise a strategy to protect me
from the police. We came up with the idea of publishing a news article
about my political struggles – from my days as KMM Vice President to
my arrest, imprisonment and dismissal, and finally reduced to a Sunday
Market stall-owner. The article was meant to fish for sympathy from the
masses. Should I be arrested, my family would hopefully receive some
support and my stall would not be boycotted. It was all I asked for. I don’t
know if I succeeded in gaining the people’s sympathy.
Personal and Political Analysis
I made a detailed analysis of my right to politics and the consequences
for a proletarian like me to take over someone else’s fort, which was
well-protected by impregnable thick walls, steel doors, and armed guards.
The first Malay political party founded after the Japanese Surrender in
1945 was the MNP, to replace KMM, banned by the British for allegedly
siding with the Japanese during World War II. Weren’t KMM members
Japanese Fifth Columnists? Was KMM’s secret abbreviation not KAME,
the Japanese word for ‘tortoise’, an amphibian that does not know retreat?
The MNP was to continue KMM’s stalled struggle. Thousands of
Malays had joined the MNP, fully realising the right of a people to be
free in their homeland, as promised by the Atlantic Charter. My friends
and I discussed names we expected the UMNO Supreme Council to
suggest as candidates:
– Datuk Abdul Razak bin Datuk Hussein (later Tun, second Prime
Minister of Malaysia), UMNO Youth President. If he were to contest,
my chances were good because of my seniority and my political
experience.