Party Rak'yat occurred in Brunei on 8 December 1962. Lim Chin Siong and the Barisan Sosialis expressed their support for the movement as an anti-colonial struggle but it was unclear if they were directly involved in the revolt. In any case, it was quickly discovered that on 3 December 1962, Azahari had had a rendezvous with Lim. Colonial records reveal that in a conversation with Moore, that Lee Kuan Yew had described the rebellion as a "heaven-sent opportunity" to legitimise the arrests of Lim Chin Siong and left-wing groups. In response to the rebellion, the Malayan government called for an Internal Security Council meeting to discuss the arrest of the Barisan leaders. While the meeting of Lim Chin Siong and Azahari reinforced the Singapore Special Branch's belief in an imminent communist subversion, the Earl of Selkirk still had his reservations about making the arrests. However, Sandys, the Colonial and Common Wealth Secretary pressured Selkirk to "take advantage of the Barisan's declaration of support for the Indonesian-sponsored insurrection in Brunei. Selkirk was to push through the arrest under the cover of the Brunei emergency.” The arrests were approved by the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, on 12 December 1962 and the Internal Security Council promptly reconvened on 13 December to firm up details of the arrests. Failure of the first Operation Coldstore The arrests were scheduled for 16 December 1962 at 0200 hours but shortly before the scheduled date Lee Kuan Yew expanded the list of arrestees to include Malayan parliamentarians Lim Kean Siew and Ahmad Boestaman because they were opposed to merger. Lee also wanted the Malayan government to assume joint responsibility for the arrests and even composed a draft public statement for them to present in the federal parliament. Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman rejected Lee's demands on the grounds that insufficient evidence existed to justify the arrest of the Malayan parliamentarians. In preparation for the arrests, a meeting was held at the Tunku's office on 15 December 1962 at 2200 hours. Lee continued to insist that the Malayan parliamentarians had to be arrested and was compelled to cancel the Singapore operation if his request was not granted. The Tunku, who was "holding a party next door" did not accede to Lee's request and said that Lee was trying to "use him to justify the arrest of Singapore opposition.". Lee, on the other hand, was worried that if