The Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain

"Mustapha Hussain was an extraordinary man, even for one who lived in extraordinary times. This English language translation of his memoirs traces his coming of age in a village in Perak in the early 20th century. He reminds us of a lost world and his perceptions growing up in a Minangkabau Malay community increasingly exposed to Chinese and Indian immigrants. After successfully making it to an English school in the tin capital of Taiping, he moves on to the Agricultural College at Serdang where he is later selected to become a lecturer." "His English medium education does not prevent him from working with other young Malays to form and lead the Young Malays Union (KMM), evidently inspired by Kemal Ataturk's Young Turks. Somewhat reluctantly, he follows the Japanese to Singapore where he is responsible for saving the lives of hundreds of Malay soldiers in the British colonial armed forces. Instead of collaborating further with the Japanese Occupation, he chooses to return to a difficult existence eking out a living on a Perak farm." "After the war, he rejoins the anti-colonial nationalist movement, but manages to avoid the severe repression against the radical Malay youth of early 1948. Later, in 1951, he loses the nomination for the presidency of UMNO by only one vote to Tunku Abdul Rahman, who went on to lead the country to independence and serve as its first Prime Minister. This extraordinary memoir must be read by anyone interested in Malay life in colonial Malaya, the origins and development of radical Malay nationalism as well as Malay politics in the mid-20th century more generally."--BOOK JACKET.