An overwhelming sense of gloom pervaded Lee's office as he unburdened his fears of an imminent communal bloodbath to Raja. The way things looked now to Lee, there seemed no way to prevent the UMNO ultras from fomenting further race riots. He saw the future, and feared it. Raja could see the toll that this was all taking on the PM – he looked more despondent than ever. Summoning the courage they seemed to need, Raja told Lee, whom he called “Harry”: “Harry, they want us to be fearful and give in.” It was imperative, he said, not to give in.

In the whirl of despair, Raja saw another future, one in which the extremists would not win. “You know we can peacefully rally the races together not just in Singapore but also in peninsular Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak,” he said steadily. “Then the ultras will have to think again. Can they engineer trouble across Malaysia? Can they do that without harming themselves?”

Lee found Raja's optimistic streak contagious. “He injected an upbeat mood by painting a more positive outcome,” the PM recalled later. Remarkably quickly, Lee swivelled his attention to the bold proposal. He related: “He assured me that he, Toh Chin Chye and the PAP leaders who came from Malaya would get their friends together and muster support. I felt reassured.” Bolstered by Raja's calm counsel and confidence, Lee snapped back to his old self again. His spirits revived as he considered this course of action, although he still worried what the consequences might be.

This was the angst-ridden background for the PAP's ambitious plan to lead a political movement to gather Malaysia-wide support for a Malaysian Malaysia. It was a transformative moment, not only of Lee's morale, but also of his leadership on Malaysia, and therefore the fate of Singapore.

At this point, it is impossible to understand Raja's actions as a politician without appreciating the nature of the relationship between him and Lee. Raja saw Lee as Singapore's best hope for its survival, and his own best hope for achieving his vision of a multiracial nation based on equality for all. It was a vision that, since merger, had extended beyond Singapore to the whole of Malaysia.