Singaporean historian Thum Ping Tjin (PJ Thum) responded on Saturday publicly to a Thursday report from the parliamentary Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods' report, saying he completely disagrees with its findings and views that he "clearly lied" and misrepresented his academic credentials.

Thum said he would respond "more fully in due course".

Thum's views "given no weight"

In the 317-page report, the committee gave three reasons why it decided to completely disregard Thum's views, stating that it "does not find Dr Thum to be a credible representor".

It said Thum "misrepresented his academic credentials in his evidence, to suggest that he held more distinguished roles at Oxford University (e.g. a “visiting professorship”) than the unpaid positions he held, and visiting scholar arrangements he obtained in return for paying a fee".

It added that Thum's claim that "his repeated misrepresentations were unintentional (e.g. a “typographical oversight”) is not believable".

Hence, the committee concluded that Thum "has clearly lied".

[related_story]

3 different positions

In his written submission to the committee last year, Thum wrote that he was a "Research Fellow in History at Oxford University".

When questioned about this during his six-hour public hearing, he clarified that he was on a "visiting professorship in anthropology" at Oxford.

Following the hearing, Thum responded to a Facebook page that got his credentials wrong. He corrected them and said he was a "visiting research fellow in history within the dept of anthropology" at Oxford.

Separately, the committee also argued that Thum admitted his failure to read or give weight to accounts by senior cadres of the Communist Party of Malaya that contradicted this thesis. In the context of his submission and the public hearing that followed, Thum also did not explain why he chose to disregard them in his publications.

Lastly, the report stated that he didn't follow up with documents to substantiate his claim that he had indirectly dealt with contradictory evidence in his publications.

Select Committee previously asked Thum to clarify what exactly his title at Oxford University is

In a press release on April 13, the Select Committee said that it emailed Thum asking for clarification of his academic credentials.

They asked him to verify which of the positions he used before to describe himself to be accurate.

They also wanted him to clarify if he holds any part-time academic position in Oxford University and, if so, what the formal title of that position is and whether he was being paid for that position.

On his FB post yesterday, Thum shared two letters of reply, dated 16 April and 26 April, from the Oxford Project Southeast Asia, which was previously circulated publicly.

Project Southeast Asia is a collective of scholars of Southeast Asia at the University of Oxford, who have come together to promote Southeast Asian Studies.

The first letter stated that Thum’s research "has already met the rigorous standards of examination at Oxford, and in peer review by fellow historical experts on the region".

The second letter noted that Thum "is a member of the University of Oxford whose historical research here and in Southeast Asia is a matter of public record". 

Oxford University confirmed Thum not an employee

However, the addendum to the Select Committee's report noted that Oxford University had confirmed that Thum was not an employee.

Oxford University confirmed that Thum was a Visiting Fellow with the Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group in the School of Anthropology.

Prior to that, he was a Visiting Scholar (not a Research Fellow) at the Oxford Centre for Global History, which was an unpaid position.

The addendum also noted that Thum did not hold the position of a Research Fellow in History at Oxford University.

Thum since explained that there was a "typographical oversight" when he wrote that he was a Research Fellow in History.

Top photo from Gov.sg Youtube.