Lee Kuan Yew gave an hour long press conference at Singapore Airport on his return from Kuala Lumpur. He stressed that “the operation had not been to help him or his Government.”
However, it is clear from the declassified minutes of the ISC meetings that it was Lee Kuan Yew himself who had instigated the arrests from August 1961. He had enlisted the support of the British by fanning the flames of the Chinese communist threat that would have derailed the plan for merger with the Federation.
Lim Yew Hock, the Chairman of the Singapore People’s Alliance had this to say about Lee’s statement:
Lord Selkirk wrote the following in his telegram of 4th February 1963:
