THE CICAK.com

An insider on the outside: Reflections on Ahmad Mustapha Hassan’s The Unmaking of Malaysia

By KEITH LEONG

The last couple of years have seen an explosion of autobiographical writing in Malaysia. Everyone, from former Communist leaders to presidents of lawn-bowling associations seems to be writing their memoirs these days.

I think this is a wonderful development because, as I have said before, Malaysians need to share their stories with the world and more importantly, each other. The problem with many of these books however is that they often fail to achieve a high standard both in style and content. The fear of defamation actions or public odium often inhibits writers from being frank about their lives or the lives of their subjects. Many memoirs or life stories therefore often come across as either propaganda pieces or bland, Wikipedia-like regurgitation of basic facts. It is a sad state of affairs when Malaysian autobiographies are considered remarkable for their omissions rather than their revelations.

It would be tempting, therefore, to simply dismiss The Unmaking of Malaysia as yet another one of these books. After all, its writer Ahmad Mustapha Hassan has had a career that was very much grounded in the Establishment. An alumnus of the elite Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Kedah, his public career which spanned nearly four decades saw him serve (among other positions) as Political Secretary to Information Minister Senu Abdul Rahman, Press Secretary to both Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Dr Mahathir (which forms the backbone of this book’s narrative) and also as General Manager of Bernama. But Ahmad Mustapha is no right-wing martinet: he was President of the University Socialist Club at the University of Malaya (which was then in Singapore) and was renowned for his independent attitude, which, as the book shows, cost him dearly.

It is these fundamental contradictions in his career and personality that makes The Unmaking of Malaysia such an interesting read. We are presented with a man who spent nearly his whole adult life in the service of the Malaysian Government, a quintessential ‘insider’, as the title suggests, but who, because of his temperament and principles inevitably saw things from (and ended up on) the outside.

I doubt that any recently-published Malaysian autobiography or biography is as raw or visceral as this book. Ahmad Mustapaha pulls no punches and spares no thought for other people’s feelings as he articulates his thoughts about everything from land management to the personalities of the Malaysian Prime Ministers. His style is simple, direct and chatty. Perhaps this is a stretch, but I was, despite myself reminded of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s seminal Mute’s Soliloquy while I was reading The Unmaking of Malaysia. Both men, one a political prisoner and the other a political aide share not only an iconoclastic worldview but an ability to draw you into their stories. Reading the works of both Toer and Ahmad Musatapha makes you feel like you know them intimately, even though you may have never even met or heard of them before- as is the case with this writer.

The principle value of The Unmaking of Malaysia to me is that it provides an insight into the political and bureaucratic culture of our nation in the 70s and 80s which, to some was (for all it’s faults) much better than the current dispensation. Ahmad Mustapha gives us a window into the past, into a Malaysia that no longer exists and how everything could have turned out differently. Or is the Malaysia of today simply the child of his generation’s failures and omissions? Despite this, I suspect (though I do not agree with all his contentions) that Ahmad Mustapha’s common-sense reminiscences of Malaysia’s past contain the answers we need about its future direction.

This is also one of the few books that shed light (however briefly) on the men and women who staff that inner sanctum of power, the Prime Minister’s Office. That particular institution has come under intense scrutiny lately, and it is interesting to see how its roles, functions and powers have evolved since Ahmad Mustapha’s time there. Again, at the risk of making fatuous comparisons, this book is the closest thing we will have to a Malaysian West Wing for the time being. We can only hope that more of the people who have served our Prime Minister’s from behind-the-scenes will come forward with their stories in the future.

Of course, The Unmaking of Malaysia is not a perfect book. The book’s main project, mainly to compare the administrations of Tun Abdul Razak and Dr Mahathir strikes one as being coloured mainly by the author’s personal prejudices rather than on cold, hard facts. The former leader, in particular comes across not as the genuine, very human man that he was but rather an almost saintly figure of legend who could do no wrong in Ahmad Mustapha’s eyes. While the author makes his case very strongly and very passionately, in the final analysis the question as to which man was the better Prime Minister is purely academic and really up to one’s personal or political taste. I am also beginning to come round to the idea that we shall never be able to have an objective, completely unbiased view or understanding of our past leaders so long as they or their descendants remain active on the politico-public stage. To be fair to Ahmad Mustapha however, his description of Tun Abdul Razak seems to stem from a genuine affection and admiration for the man rather than any sycophantic desire for hagiography.

I found book on the whole to both riveting and thought-provoking. It possesses an honesty and bluntness that is rarely, if ever found in Malaysian writing. There is not a single page in The Unmaking of Malaysia that would be trite or boring to an educated reader, and a ‘twist’ in the end that will challenge and ultimately knock-down whatever perceptions they may have built up. Ahmad Mustapha should be congratulated not only on writing an interesting book, but on living such a full and remarkable life as well.

–
KEITH LEONG is a contributing writer for theCICAK.

Keith was born in Melaka, grew up in Damansara Jaya. He recently completed a master’s degree in English from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He enjoys baroque music, grand epic movies and long walks.