a road map towards Malayan independence, a united front was mulled to oppose the proposals. United front proposed On 19 November 1946, a meeting was held to discuss the formation of a united front. Attending this meeting were: Following a telegrammed suggestion by Tan Cheng Lock, three central principles were adopted: A united Malaya including Singapore A popularly elected Central Government and popularly elected State councils A citizenship granting equal rights to all who made Malaya their permanent home and the object of their undivided loyalty Formation On 14 December 1946, the MDU sponsored a meeting in Singapore which was attended by the Malay Nationalist Party (known by its Malay acronym PKMM), the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) and various other groups to: "provide the machinery for the various communities, through their organisations and associations, to reach agreement on all points connected with the future constitution of Malaya, thus avoiding the dangers of separated and self-interested representation" The immediate result of this meeting was the formation of the Council for Joint Action (CJA) comprising the MDU, PKMM, MIC, the General Labour Union (later to split into the Singapore Federation of Trade Unions or SFTU and the Pan Malayan Federation of Trade Unions or PMFTU), the Singapore Clerical Union, the Straits Chinese British Association (SBCA), the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Singapore Tamil Association and the Singapore Women's Federation operating on the three principles adopted during the November meeting. Tan Cheng Lock was appointed the chairman with MDU's Paul Eber as secretary-general. A memorandum of protest was sent by the CJA to Arthur Creech Jones, a trade unionist who was then the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies for the British government on 16 December of the same year with the announcement that the CJA intended to boycott the Consultative Committee established to discuss and implement the Anglo-Malay Proposals. This CJA was expanded on 22 December 1946 with the inclusion of the Pan Malayan Federation of Trade Unions, the Clerical Unions of Penang, Malacca, Selangor and Perak, the Selangor Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Selangor Women's Federation, the Malayan New Democratic Youth's League, the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Ex-Comrades Association, the Singapore Chinese Association and the Peasant's Union. A press conference in Kuala Lumpur announced the formation of the Pan-Malayan Council of Joint Action (PMCJA) with Tan Cheng Lock re-elected chairman with MDU's Gerald de Cruz as secretary-general. The PMCJA sought to