 This was a significant period in Othman’s early years as it marked the time when he would become acquainted with Lee Kuan Yew, who had been the legal adviser to Utusan Melayu as well as SPEU.This would mark the beginning of a long and enduring friendship between the two.He would stay in his role of news editor for 6 more years until his promotion to deputy editor of the newspaper in 1957.