While it has previously been taken as historical common knowledge that Singapore had been expelled from Malaysia unilaterally by the Kuala Lumpur Government, recently declassified documents from the Albatross File (taken from a 1980s interview where Goh referred to Merger with Malaysia as an "Albatross around [their] necks"), revealed that as early as July 1964, negotiations had begun between the PAP and the Alliance. In a handwritten letter, Lee Kuan Yew formally authorised Goh Keng Swee to negotiate with Alliance leadership in order to negotiate and plan the eventual exit of Singapore from the Federation, and over the next year, the two parties coordinated to arrange matters such that when the Tunku announced Singapore's expulsion and the PAP were "forced" to establish an independent government, it would be presented as a "fait accompli" that could not be jeopardised by popular uproar or opposition, which was still in favour of Merger. Having already reaped the political benefits of Operation Coldstore, the crippling of the Singaporean Left, the detention of key Barisan Sosialis leaders like Lim Chin Siong, Lee and Goh both believed that this move would afford Singapore with the "best of both worlds", both isolated from the communal turmoil which they believed would inevitably engulf Malaysia while retaining the economic benefits of access to the Malaysian markets.