extent of communist threat in Singapore had been inflated in the 1950s and 1960s. Individuals such as Said Zahari and Chin Peng suggested that the communist threat could have been exaggerated. Zahari, a journalist and one of those arrested during Operation Coldstore, said that the operation was not about arresting the communists as "the Communist Party of Malaya in Singapore was no longer active", and that the operation was instead used to weaken the opposition to the People's Action Party. Chin Peng, then the secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya said in his memoirs, "Contrary to countless allegations made over the years by Singapore leaders, academics and the Western Press, we never controlled Barisan Socialists (sic)", but also wrote, "Operation Cold Store shattered our underground network throughout the island. Those who escaped the police net went into hiding. Many fled to Indonesia". Scholars have likewise been split on the issue, with prominent historian Thum Ping Tjin arguing that the PAP had utilised the operation for political capital. Fellow historian Kumar Ramakrishna on the other hand, asserts that the communist threat was real and argues that the absence of subversive communist activities was caused by the clever strategy that had been adopted of working within the constitution to subvert Singapore to communism. Declassification of official documents The maturation of the 30-year rule has led to the release of declassified British archival documents pertaining to Operation Coldstore. However, the documents in the Internal Security Department archives of Singapore remain classified. Privilege access to these classified documents has been granted to scholars such as Kumar Ramakrishna. This situation has prompted historians such as Tan Tai Yong to urge the government to "widen access to the archives" as "such access should not hinge on who is asking for them" so that historians can "offer different perspectives." See also Operation Spectrum Internal Security Act (Singapore) Malaysian Internal Security Act References Recommended Readings Hussin Mutalib (2004). Parties and Politics. A Study of Opposition Parties and the PAP in Singapore. Marshall Cavendish Adademic. Lee Kuan Yew. (1998). The Singapore Story. Federal Publications. Mathew Jones, “Creating Malaysia: Singapore Security, the Borneo Territories and the Contours of British Policy, 1961-1963” in Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 28, No. 2, May 2000. pp. 85–109 Thum, Pingtjin. “‘The Fundamental Issue is Anti-colonialism, Not Merger’: Singapore’s “progressive left,” Operation Coldstore, and the Creation of Malaysia,” in Asia Research Institute,