THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Why I Penned These Memoirs 399
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Postscript: Why I Penned These Memoirs
On 6 June 1974, as I sat on the porch of my house in Matang, trying to
catch my breath after a nasty asthmatic attack earlier that morning, a
postman arrived with a stack of letters. As usual, I inspected the envelopes
one by one until I noticed one stamped Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
(National University of Malaysia) or UKM for short. I put it aside and
fiddled with the rest. This habit of determining who my mail was from
before opening the envelopes was a habit I had recently acquired. It must
be a habit associated with old age.
The UKM-stamped letter was from Prof. Zainal Abidin bin Abdul
Wahid, Head of UKM’s History Department. I had seen Prof. Zainal
Abidin on television, heard him on radio and read his articles in the local
press. In his letter, he said that his office was about to conduct a course
on ‘Prominent Figures’ in the 1974/75 session for its honour students.
This course aimed at collecting experiences of prominent Malaysians ‘no
longer active in their fields’ to serve as a basis for writing their biographies,
and I was one of those selected. After reading the letter, I felt
inspired, recalling several newspaper clippings on others’ experiences.
If I agreed to the project, I was required to write a working paper
for an hour-long presentation and this would be followed by a one-hour
question-and-answer session. Should I need more time, I could have twohour
sessions on two different occasions. The working paper was needed
two weeks ahead of time. The letter hoped “you will respond positively
as we fear details of your experiences may not be recorded for our future
generations. It would mean a great loss to the nation and our national
history will not be complete.”
The language of the letter was refined and referred to me as a prominent
figure, but I was not prepared to accept the invitation unless UKM
retracted the phrase “no longer active”. ‘Active’, ‘not active’ or ‘no longer
active’ are relative terms. No one should judge anyone by the number of
public speeches they deliver per month, the size of the stages they stand
on, the loudness of the amplifier or the size of the audience. What is