Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman announced that, "sooner or later Malaya, Singapore and the Borneo territories should work together for close political and economic cooperation." Developments leading to Operation Coldstore Disagreements over specifics of arrests By 1962, it was clear that the Malayan government considered the arrests of Singapore's left-wing groups, which they perceived as communist breeding grounds, as one of the two pre-conditions for the creation of Malaysia. The debates over the specifics of the arrests resulted in a power struggle in 1961 between the British, Singapore and Malayan leaders. In February 1962, the Malayans insisted on the apprehension of opposition leaders in Singapore and warned that they would pull out from the Internal Security Council if their requests were ignored. However, the British officials in Singapore opposed such oppressive measures and argued that evidence had to be presented before arrests could be made. Observing that the Malayans were pushing for an arrest programme, Lee Kuan Yew jumped onto the bandwagon in March 1962. The Malayans' call for arrests could revive Lee's earlier attempts in 1960 to remove "certain communists close to Lim Chin Siong" by invoking the PSSO. In May 1962, a joint report was produced by Singapore and Malaya and presented to the Malayan, Singapore and British governments. The report advocated for an "intensification of efforts to expose the communist, and deny them facilities, culminating in the detention of those shown to be Communist conspirators ... with Lim Chin Siong at the top of the list ...". The Earl of Selkirk disagreed with the report's recommendations by highlighting that "the Singapore Special Branch have virtually failed to identify directly any communist threats during the last three years" and opined that "Lee Kuan Yew is quite clearly attracted by the prospect of wiping out his main political opposition before the next general elections". Therefore, cautioning against using the PSSO for political rather than security reasons. By 28 June 1962, the absence of concrete arrests led Geofroy Tory, the British representative in Kuala Lumpur, to report that the Malayans were on the verge of withdrawing from merger if the pre-condition for arrests was unmet. This inaction was in part due to the Earl of Selkirk and Philip Moore's continued belief that insufficient evidence existed to demonstrate the existence of subversive communist activities. Moore, the Acting British Commissioner for Singapore, reasoned that Lim Chin Siong's political actions were constitutional and