Ibrahim Yaacob

Ibrahim bin Yaacob (1911 – 8 March 1979) was a Malayan politician. An opponent of the British colonial government, he was president and founder of the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM).[1] During World War II, he supported the Japanese during their occupation of Malaya.[1] Imprisoned by the British, he was freed by the Japanese in February 1942, only to be recaptured by British forces in Singapore later that same year.[2] He died in Jakarta on 8 March 1979.[3]

Ibrahim was born in Temerloh, Pahang, to a family of Bugis descent.[4] In 1929, he joined the Sultan Idris Teachers' Training College and graduated two years later as a teacher. During the 1930s, he wrote a series of articles that were critical of the British administration in Malay newspapers and was later forced to resign after receiving a warning from the British authorities. He became the editor of a nationalistic newspaper, Majlis, and formed the KMM in 1938.[5] The goal of KMM was to achieve independence for Malaya through union with Indonesia.[6] As a member of KMM, he welcomed and worked with Japanese as he believed that Japanese would aid Malaya in gaining independence and support its fifth column activities.[7]