The editorial “Aggression in Asia” had appeared on the front page of the seventh issue of Fajar, dated 10 May 1954. It was co-written by M.K. Rajakumar, Poh Soo Kai and James Puthucheary. The editorial took a critical view of the ongoing Anglo- American military initiative to form the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation, deploring it as evidence of continuing Western imperialism in the region. It rejected the association of Malaya with the Western states and demanded that the country traverse instead a third, non-aligned path. In conclusion, the authors were adamant that “the people of this country do not identify themselves with the actions of the Colonial government”.
The student journalists published, and distributed beyond the campus, an attack on colonialism to mark the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu.
Three days later, 900 Chinese middle school students clashed with the police over the Registration of National Service Bill. In contravention of the Emergency Regulations, the students had gathered to protest against a colonial legislation designed, they believed, to support an imperialist war against China, their cultural motherland. A member of the Fajar editorial board, but not one of those arrested on 28 May, first-year arts student, Jeyaraj Rajarao, then 21, was among the protesters. On 18th May, the University of Malaya Students’ Union came out in support of the 48 Chinese school students arrested during the protest.