Tag Archives: new naratif

New Naratif's founder Dr Thum Ping Tjin (PJ Thum) was hauled up by the police and had his electronic equipment seized. The police treatment of PJ Thum has been viewed as a form of state harassment and intimidation tactics. International organisations and political parties like the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) have come to the defence of New Naratif, and their voices have just been joined by prominent civil activists like playwright Alfian Sa'at, as well as activists such as Sean Francis Han and Function 8.

The latest to show their support for PJ Thum and New Naratif was the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). On the evening of 22 Sep 2020, SDP made a press release to decry the harassment of activists and independent journalists in Singapore. The SDP explained that PJ Thum was only exercising his rights as a citizen of Singapore to comment on the local political situation. SDP said the ELD was acting in a partisan manner, and hit back at the ELD by suggesting the department should look into the "numerous incidents regarding the PAP" where elections rules may have been breached.

On 21 Sep 2020 New Naratif updated that Thum Ping Tjin (PJ Thum) had been hauled up by the police for questioning at Clementi Police Station over the ELD police report. After a lengthy hours-long police interview, the police brought PJ Thum home and his laptop was seized as evidence during this raid.

In the latest of the PAP government's spree on clamping down dissent, it has issued Dr Thum Ping Tjin and website New Naratif a POFMA correction order over an 8 May video about POFMA. The video, entitled “The Show with PJ Thum - Ep 8 - How bad laws are created and abused in Singapore (A POFMA case study)”, raised issues about the government's use of POFMA as a tool to silence criticisms against the government. Shooting itself in the face, the PAP government proceeded to invoke POFMA on Dr Thum's video.