What were the events that lead to the race riots in 1964?

The 1964 Race Riots were a series of riots that took place in Singapore during two separate periods in July and September between Chinese and Malay groups.

The first riot occured on 21 July that was the same day as Prophet Muhammad's birthday.
IThe riot killed 36 people and injured more than 550.There have been many suggestions cited for the occurence of the race riots. Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister Tu Abdul Razak blamed the Indonesian and Communist provocateurs or agents.

On the other hand, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and several other foreign ministers thought that happened as the result of disturbance by Syed Jaafar Albar and other cuases of the ultra-nationalist faction in UMNO. According to the Australian Deputy High Commissioner, W.B. Pritchett: "...there can be no doubt that UMNO was solely responsible for the riots. Its members ran the communal campaign or allowed it to happen." The riots happened during the period when the PAP-UMNO relations were extremely strained after the People's Action Party challenged the UMNO in the March 1964 Malaysia federal election with the campaign slogan of Malaysian Malaysia.In addition, the involvement of Chinese secret societies in the riots also increased the level of violence.

By Navneet