Oxford historians come to defense of historian accused of subversion in Singapore

Three Oxford academics have defended the doctoral thesis and academic credentials of historian Thum Ping Tjin, after doubts were cast by the Parliamentary Select Committee on deliberate online falsehoods.

In a letter dated Wednesday (May 2) and addressed to committee chairman Charles Chong, Professor Judith Brown, Professor John Darwin, and Dr Peter Carey said Dr Thum's doctoral thesis, Chinese Language Political Mobilisation in Singapore, 1953-1963, was "written to the very highest standards of historical research that Oxford expects of its doctoral students".

Prof Brown, who identified herself in the letter as Dr Thum's examiner, is an Emeritus Beit Professor of Commonwealth History at the university. Prof Darwin is an Emeritus Professor of Global and Imperial History, while Dr Peter Carey is an Emeritus Fellow of Oxford's Trinity College and visiting (adjunct) professor at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. Prof Darwin and Dr Carey were the joint doctoral supervisors for Dr Thum.

Adding that Dr Thum's thesis was "successfully examined" on March 17, 2011, the academics noted that in "(Oxford) tradition, Dr Thum pursued his research where the historical evidence took him, without fear or favour". ...