 At Raffles, he formed a Malay literary association with friends including Aziz Ishak, Hamid Jumaat, and Ahmad Ibrahim and contributed articles on the Malays and their plight to Warta Malaya, a leading Malay newspaper in Singapore.This was done through Aziz's brother, Yusof Ishak who was already working as a journalist.Yusof later became the first President of Singapore.