When the Singapore Standard was launched in 1950, Raja joined the stream of journalists who left the Tribune to join the new newspaper. The Standard's first editor was T.H. Tan, also from the Tribune. He would be a founder member of the Malayan Chinese Association when it was formed in 1949, first as a welfare association, and then as a full-fledged, centrist Malayan Chinese political party. He later became MCA's secretary-general.

It was T.H. Tan who approached Raja to cross over to the new newspaper. The Standard's general manager, Aw Cheng Taik, formalised the offer in a letter dated 5 April 1950: “Further to your discussion with Mr T. H. Tan recently, we take this opportunity to enquire if you are interested in a position as Leader Writer and Features Editor”. The salary offered was relatively good — $1,200 a month, rising by $40 a month after each year's service over three years.

Besides the better salary, Raja was also attracted by the prospect of working for a pan-Malayan newspaper run by Asians and staffed by Asians. The paper was started by the Chinese entrepreneur, Aw Boon Haw, otherwise known as the “Tiger Balm King” for his famed medicinal ointment. Aw's family also owned the Chinese-language newspaper, Sin Chew Jit Poh, one of the two main Chinese dailies.

Raja knew that Aw's main aims in creating the new paper were to promote his Tiger products to a wider audience, and at the same time, to gain prestige over his rival, the tycoon Lee Kong Chian, who was chancellor of the newly-created University of Malaya. The Burmaborn Aw, who was illiterate in English, wanted a powerful newspaper which, as Raja related, “would shake the whole of Singapore”. It would be pan-Malayan in its outlook and serve to unite the different communities. It was an appealing prospect for an idealistic journalist seeking to do great things. Raja was only too glad to accept the paper's offer, and started work in June 1950.

Cheered by the brighter prospects, he broke the news to his father in Seremban in a letter dated 12 July. Earlier that year, his father Sinnathamby, taking pity on Raja's parlous state and ramshackle living conditions, had decided to help Raja and Piroska buy a house to live in at 30, Chancery Lane.