Historian PJ Thum, political exile Tan Wah-Piow meets with M'sia PM Mahathir Mohamad

Interesting group of people.

Sulaiman Daud | August 30, 2018, 08:14 PM

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is a busy guy these days.

But not too busy to meet with a delegation of Singaporeans, including political exile Tan Wah-Piow and historian Pingtjin Thum, popularly known as PJ Thum.

On Aug. 30, Thum shared a photo of himself on his Facebook page, standing together with the Malaysian leader:

In case you can't read it, his caption states:

"I met with Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir today. I urged him to take leadership in Southeast Asia for the promotion of democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of information.

I also expressed hopes for closer relations between the people of Malaysia and Singapore, and presented him with a copy of 'Living with Myths in Singapore'."

Five Singaporeans met Mahathir

But don't let the photo and the post fool you into thinking that he had a one-on-one meeting.

Thum was part of a larger group, including Tan.

Tan is a former University of Singapore Students’ Union president who was named as the mastermind behind the Marxist Conspiracy of 1987.

Tan left Singapore for the UK in 1976 after evading National Service.

Tan was accompanied by Malaysian social activist Hishamuddin Rais.

Incidentally, Rais was arrested under the Internal Security Act in 1984 on the charge of conspiracy to overthrow the Malaysian government with violence.

Mahathir was the PM then.

You can see his post below:

In case you can't read it, the caption reads:

"By the end of the day, you would know from all mainstream media that I met Tun Dr Mahathir for 1hr 20 minutes, together with Dr P J Thum, and three other Singaporeans.

Hisham and I presented our Peoples’ Charter for Southeaast Asia to Dr Mahathir.

Details to follow.

30 August 2018"

(Update at 2:00 am on Aug. 31, 2018: The article has been updated to include Kirstan Han's Facebook post.)

On Aug. 30, journalist Kirsten Han shared a photo on her Facebook page of herself having a meal with Tan, Thum, Hishamuddin, and activist Jolovan Wham:

[related_story]

In case you can't read it, the caption says:

"It’s not every day that you get asked, “Hey, would you like to meet the prime minister of Malaysia?” It’s been an interesting day; lots to think about and digest. I’ll write more about it soon, after my food coma."

Related story:

Top image adapted from PJ Thum and Tan Wah-Piow's Facebook page.