From Third World To First - The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 by Lee Kuan Yew

We believed the long-term future for Singapore was to rejoin Malaya, so we merged with it to form Malaysia in September 1963. Within a year, in July 1964, we suffered Malay-Chinese race riots in Singapore. We were trapped in an intractable struggle with Malay extremists of the ruling party, United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), who were intent on a Malay-dominated Malaysia. To counter their use of communal riots to cow us, we rallied the non-Malays and Malays throughout Malaysia in the Malaysian Solidarity Convention to fight for a Malaysian Malaysia. By August 1965 we were given no choice but to leave.

The communal bullying and intimidation made our people willing to endure the hardships of going it alone. That traumatic experience of race riots also made my colleagues and me even more determined to build a multiracial society that would give equality to all citizens, regardless of race, language or religion. It was an article of faith which guided our policies. (from the Preface)
The line editor at HarperCollins, New York, has meticulously Americanized my English. She has also made me politically gender correct. Whenever I wrote "man", he has become "person" or "people". I thank her for making me appear less of a male chauvinist to Americans. (from the Acknowledgments)
From Third World To First - Amazon