 These were collectively termed the 1964 race riots, the largest and deadliest of which occurred on 21 July 1964.The immediate antecedent event was a speech by Syed Jaafar Albar, backed by Federation Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein, at the New Star Cinema in Pasir Panjang on 12 July 1964, where he accused Lee Kuan Yew of being an oppressor and alleged that the fate of the Malays was even worse than it was during the Japanese occupation.He declared to an excited audience of several thousand Malays that 'if there is unity, no force in this world can trample us down... Not one Lee Kuan Yew, a thousand Lee Kuan Yew... we finish them off...' The crowd responded enthusiastically with cries to arrest Lee and Othman Wok, and crush and kill them .