Singapore historian Thum Ping Tjin has responded to a Facebook post from Member of Parliament Seah Kian Peng that alleged Thum did "not wish Singapore well", while claiming that Thum had "invite(d) Dr M to bring democracy to Singapore".

In a Facebook post on Monday morning, Thum said the notion of him being a traitor to his country is "ridiculous and unfounded", while calling Malaysia a "beacon of hope for democracy" and saying "we can always aspire to improve the quality of our democracy":

"Malaysia is now a beacon of hope for democracy in Southeast Asia, and I expressed to Dr Mahathir the hope that many of us feel. As I said in my talk in JB (below), I don’t want Singapore to "do a Malaysia" — I want Singapore to do a Singapore. The solution to many of Singapore’s problems lie with Singaporeans. But that does not preclude us from learning from others’ experiences to make our country better."

Here's his post in full:

Controversy over meeting with Dr M

Thum's post comes on the back of controversy over the weekend that erupted in the wake of a meeting held by a group of Singaporean activists and civil society members with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on August 30.

The group included cartoonist Sonny Liew, activist and freelance journalist Kirsten Han, political exile Tan Wah-Piow, Thum and civil society member Jolovan Wham. They were joined by Malaysian activist Hishamuddin Ras, who helped to organise the meeting so Tan could invite Mahathir to deliver a keynote speech at a regional conference on democracy.

Mahathir had been re-elected as Prime Minister after 15 years away from the Malaysian Cabinet. His party, the Pakatan Harapan, had beat the incumbent Barisan Nasional which held power for over half a century.

In the short four months since being sworn in as the once-again leader of Malaysia, Mahathir had threatened to cancel the High Speed Rail (HSR) project with Singapore, then announced he was definitely cancelling it, then backtracked and said he would defer the HSR. He also said that he wanted to raise the price of water sold to Singapore by 10 times, flying in the face of the 1965 Water Agreement.

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Han, Teo allegedly harassed online, branded as "traitors" to S'pore

Earlier on Sunday, Han and civil society member Teo Soh Lung reported receiving harassment and death threats online after Seah's statement which mentioned Han and Teo, and said that historian Thum Ping Tjin “does not wish Singapore well” was published:

Seah's post contained a screenshot of Thum's post wishing Selamat Hari Merdeka to Malaysia on Aug. 31, Malaysia's independence day -- it also said "happy unofficial independence day to the people of Singapore."

Also included was a screenshot of a comment by former Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) member Teo Soh Lung, beside her SDP candidate image from the 2011 General Election (GE 2011), stating, "Agree with Hisham. Democratic space is first to be preserved. Singapore is part of Malaya la."

Han said in her post:

"Mr Seah's baseless claims have had an incendiary effect, triggering a torrent of accusations of treason and people shouting about us being "traitors". We're now also getting death threats."

While in hers, Teo, an ISA detainee in the 1987 Marxist Conspiracy, said her comment was made in response during a Facebook Live video broadcast of Hishamuddin's speech given at a forum where he was giving "a light hearted history lesson", and it was expressing her agreement with him that Singapore was a part of Malaya during the period he was referring to.

"Immediately after the publication of MP Seah’s post, his supporters started baying for blood and telling all of us to leave Singapore. Some called me a traitor and said I deserved to be detained under the ISA. Several said I should never be released."

Ex-NMP Calvin Cheng also weighed in on the death threats, calling for a stop to them.

What was the meeting about?

In the 1-hour-and-20-minute-long meeting the five Singaporeans had with Mahathir, they touched on Malaysia-Singapore relations, immigration processing times at the Causeway, democracy, political reform, human rights and LGBT equality, according to a blog post by Han.

Seah responds

Monday afternoon saw Seah putting up a follow-up post apologising for incorrectly claiming in his previous post that Thum and Teo were representing the interests of the SDP when they met Mahathir.

He also urged people to avoid getting "personal or abusive" in remarks made by "many different individuals (and trolls) against each other", stating that he "(does) not support such types of comments":

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Top image from Pingtjin Thum Facebook page