James travelled together with Tan Sri Samad Ismail, Tun Musa Hitam, Dato ‘ Abdullah Ahmad, and Tun Dr Mahathir to the Afro Asian Unity Conference in Ghana.
the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation,
Malaysia that had been set up within the Alliance Party’s framework by
some forward thinking members such as Dr Mahathir Mohamad,
Abdullah Ahmad (Razak’s then Political Secretary), Musa Hitam (who
later became Deputy Prime Minister from 1981 to 1986), Lee San Choon
(later President of the Malaysian Chinese Association or MCA and a
ranking Cabinet member), the late A. Samad Ismail (radical political
activist from Singapore who was to become Editorial Adviser to the New
Straits Times) and the late James Puthucheary (one of the founder members
of the People’s Action Party of Singapore and a prominent lawyer in Kuala
Lumpur in later years).
They actually sent a delegation to participate in the Afro-Asian
Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation Conference in Winneba, Ghana in May
1965 “without the Tengku’s approval or knowledge (approval was given
by Tun Razak).”
See Abdullah Ahmad, Tengku Abdul Rahman, pp. 60-61.