Mustapha Hussain: Malay Nationalism Before UMNO
THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN, 1910-1957
KMM members were the first to stay in the then newly completed Changi Prison. After they were all were released by the British just before the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, British inmates replaced them during the Japanese Occupation. Thus, KMM members were Changi Prison’s first inmates.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
I repeat that KMM’s primary objective was to uphold the rights of the Malays, who had been oppressed by others, due to the British inability to stop them from making claims, especially on the delicate question of ownership. KMM would adopt wide ranging nationalistic principles and strive in the name of nusa dan bangsa (country and people).
KMM would pressure the British to act. Failing that, KMM would move accordingly, as India, Burma and Indonesia had done. In short, radical and revolutionary thoughts would be activated towards gaining KMM’s cherished objective, Independence.
KMM had no interest in communism. Even though some of its policies seemed similar to those of several Indonesian political organisations, KMM was not influenced by them.
After KMM’s formation, Ibrahim Yaakub and Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako) returned to Singapore, where they were journalists with a Singapore daily. With nationalistic fire burning in my heart, I began to carry out my responsibilities as Vice President. M.N. Othman and I sat down to draft KMM’s constitution clearly outlining the name, motto, objectives, policies, and other matters relating to the formation of a union.
Not in a position to reveal our political aspirations, KMM was registered as a social body with several features drawn from the Selangor Indian Youth League. M.N. Othman and I visited the Registrar of Societies, where I paid a $15 registration fee, a hefty sum then, out of my own pocket.
In a harsh and unfriendly tone, the Registrar, a white man, rained us with questions. We kept giving the same plain answers despite his pressuring us for more information on the real nature of the body. We maintained it was a social body to motivate Malay youths in various fields: sports, education, co operatives, health, agriculture and others. Our immediate plan was to set up a library in Kuala Lumpur where Malay youths in general, and KMM members in particular, could meet, read, listen to lectures and exchange ideas.
Even though registration was yet to be confirmed, we went ahead to set up branches in Kajang and Seremban. In Kajang, a meeting was held at a book store where for the first time, I met Saidi Hashim and Mustaffa Yunus, a barber who later became a member of the Selangor Executive Committee.
After the formation of several branches, M.N. Othman and I were called up by a British Special Branch Officer, who pointed out that we had violated certain regulations and could be fined or imprisoned. I answered that there was nothing wrong in our setting up branches as KMM was a union, and not an association. The white man muttered “Damn!” under his breath and sent us out.
British suspicion of KMM was clear. Several leaders were suspended from work. Our secretary M.N. Othman was suspended for nine months, but that did not deter others. After four months of close British surveillance, in September 1938, KMM was accepted as a legitimate body. Following that, more divisions and branches sprung up in several states.
Monthly Central Committee meetings were usually held at the Jalan Pasar home of Hassan Haji Manan, very near the house of YM Raja Ahmed Hisham, Malay Section Chief of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). Sometimes, Ibrahim Yaakub came to the meetings, but not Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako), who was outside KMM’s inner circle.
“Independence”, “Freedom” and “Malay pre-eminence” were words which cropped up frequently in our conversations and discussions. But this exhilarating nationalistic awakening among KMM members could not be injected into the veins of the Westernised Malay bureaucrats who felt most uncomfortable discussing Malay poverty and backwardness. KMM resolved to shake them out of their wealth induced dreams.
KMM subscribed to “Equality, Fraternity and Liberty”, principles already preached by Prophet Muhammad (Praise Be Upon Him) in his time and again by French politicians in the 16th century. KMM members were already calling each other Saudara (‘friend’ or ‘brother’ in Malay), brother, comrade and ikhwan (‘brother’ in Arabic).
At a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, I suggested KMM be galvanised into a mass movement of 100,000 members within three years, to pressure the British more effectively.
Where would the members come from? I suggested three sources. One, members of Friends of the Pen Association , who were facing a leadership crisis. Two, non supporters of state Malay associations led by the traditional elite and bureaucrats, especially since Malay newspapers had begun to question the Malay elite’s sincerity towards their own people. If the purist and nationalistic KMM were to throw its doors wide open, Malay dailies and a new nationalistic awakening would direct disenchanted Malays towards KMM, the ‘House of the People’.
Finally, KMM would be a natural attraction for the Kaum Muda, or Young Faction, representing the modern, or reformist Islamic school of thought then in conflict with the Kaum Tua, the Old Faction, representing conservative or traditional school of thought.
I also proposed KMM rent a room near the Bukit Bintang Amusement Park for members to meet in; hold lectures; organize indoor and outdoor games; and publish a fortnightly newsletter Berita Kemam, or KMM News.
But all my ideas were shot down by KMM President Ibrahim Yaakub, who insisted that KMM remain small. He may very well have had other ideas for KMM, as would later emerge. When Japan invaded Malaya, Ibrahim Yaakub made KMM its ‘Fifth Column’ without consulting us.
At the end of 1939, KMM’s first annual general assembly was held at the Gombak Lane Malay School (later the site of Restoran Rakyat) in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. The school, often called ‘The School under a Tunnel’ is no longer there. This meeting, which brought together members on a nation wide basis, was quite successful, and KMM made its mark in Malaya. Had KMM been the body that wrestled Independence from the British, the school would be a historical landmark. Alas, it was not to be! Sadly, the 1939 annual general assembly was its first and last.
A few days before the outbreak of World War II, on 8 December 1941, about 100 KMM members nationwide were arrested by the British Police. Handcuffed KMM members were dragged to local lock ups before being transferred to Pudu Prison in Kuala Lumpur. When Japanese troops began to make a rapid advance south, these detained members were moved to Singapore, where most were thrown into Outram Prison, while a few were kept in Changi Prison.
KMM members were the first to stay in the then newly completed Changi Prison. After they were all were released by the British just before the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, British inmates replaced them during the Japanese Occupation. Thus, KMM members were Changi Prison’s first inmates.
The Japanese should be held responsible for the arrest of KMM members as it was their Propaganda Department that repeatedly broadcast that KAME would assist the Japanese once they invaded Malaya. In Japanese, KAME means ‘tortoise’, an animal that only knows how to advance. As soon as British Intelligence decoded KAME to be KMM, they spread their dragnets to rope in KMM members from wherever they were.
Ibrahim Yaakub and Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako) were arrested in Singapore, where they worked as journalists with Warta Malaya, the paper Ibrahim Yaakub bought with Japanese funds. Others arrested were Hassan Haji Manan, Abdul Karim Rashid, Ahmad Boestamam, Idris Hakim, Sutan Jenain and my own brother, Yahaya Hussain, an active KMM member in Pahang. Yahaya was dragged, handcuffed, from Jerantut, first to Kuala Lumpur, and then to Singapore.
