Thum Ping Tjin

Thum Ping Tjin
Dr Thum Ping Tjin delivering a lecture at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, on 17 September 2013
Born	17 December 1979 Singapore
Nationality	Singaporean
Other names	PJ Thum
Alma mater	University of Oxford, Harvard University
Organization(s)	Project Southeast Asia, University of Oxford

Thum Ping Tjin (born 17 December 1979), better known as PJ, is a Research Associate at the Centre for Global History and co-ordinator of Project Southeast Asia, University of Oxford. He is the first Singaporean to swim the English Channel. He is also the first Oxford University graduate student to do so. He was a member of the Singapore national swimming team and has represented Singapore at every level, including the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

PJ is currently on a visiting professorship in anthropology, and does not hold any tenured academic position at Oxford University.

Biography

PJ was born on 17 December 1979 in Singapore. he received his early education at five of the Anglo-Chinese Schools. At the age of 16, he went to Harvard College. He graduated from Harvard in the year 2000 with a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies. Thum has participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta as a member of the Singapore national swimming team. That same year, he was awarded the Sportsboy of the Year award by the Singapore Sports Council. As a Rhodes Scholar he attended Hertford College at the University of Oxford, reading for a second bachelor's degree in Modern History and Politics. He was Captain of the Oxford University Swimming Team and earned two Blues.

Thum retired in 2002 from representing his country but continued to represent the University of Oxford. His younger brother, Thum Bingming, is also a member of the Singapore national swimming team, as well as a Member of the Cornell University Men's Varsity swim team.

In early 2005, PJ was a teacher at Anglo-Chinese School (International) in Singapore.

PJ later returned to Oxford on a Commonwealth Scholarship, where he completed a DPhil in Modern History at Hertford College. From 2006 to 2007, he was also a Frewin Warden at Brasenose College.

From 2012 to 2014, PJ Thum was a Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Since 2014, PJ is a Research Associate at the Centre for Global History, University of Oxford; a Fellow of Green Templeton College; and co-ordinator of Project Southeast Asia, an initiative of the University of Oxford to expand its range of scholarly expertise on Southeast Asia.

In 2015, PJ was elected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Channel Swim

In July 2004, PJ decided to swim the channel after successfully participating in the 2004 Cross-Channel Varsity Match. PJ was trying to swim in August 2005, and he trained in Singapore throughout the year leading up to the event. In June 2005, he left for the United Kingdom to train further. PJ plunged into the cold waters of the Channel on 6 August, a few days later than expected due to stormy conditions, as the weather looked calm. Things changed three hours later, the weather became worse but still PJ did not give up and continued. He successfully reached the coast of France after 12 hours and 24 minutes - the first Singaporean to do so, and the first Oxford graduate as well.

After his swim, PJ returned to Oxford to continue his studies.

Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods

Dr. Thum appeared before the Singapore Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods after he submitted his proposal on how the Singapore Government could counter deliberate online falsehoods. His proposal was based on his research on People's Action Party use of fake news to detain their political opponents during the Operation Coldstore in 1963. “Beginning with Operation Coldstore in 1963, politicians have told Singaporeans that people were being detained without trial on national security grounds due to involvement with radical communist conspiracies to subvert the state. Declassified documents have proven this to be a lie.” Dr. Thum argued.

During the 6 hours hearing session, Dr. Thum substantiated his claims on the lack of communist conspiracy during Operation Coldstore with declassified documents from Special Branch, the predecessor of the Internal Security Department. Mr K. Shanmugam noted that Dr. Thum had excluded statements from Chin Peng (leader of the Communist Party of Malaya) and some other communist leaders. In response, Dr. Thum stated that he had excluded Chin Peng's statements as Chin Peng was an "unreliable" source. At one point during the hearing, Mr. Shanmugam likened Dr. Thum to the notorious Holocaust denier David Irving and attacked his research saying it is "not scholarship, but sophistry", to which Dr. Thum strongly disputed. After the hearing session, Dr. Thum remarked “In some ways, it’s very flattering that the Minister of Law and Home Affairs takes such a keen interest in my work. What other academic in what other country would have a minister grilling him for six hours about one article?" “Ultimately, this is the Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, and I don’t think we discussed it at all…so I’m not sure what his motivations were in doing this.”

Dr. Thum admitted that he could have worded his peer-reviewed publication better, including statements about Lord Selkirk's assessment of the Communist threat, but assured that "thus far no historian has... contradicted the central thrust of my work".

External links

• PJ Thum's academia.edu page