Tag Archives: Thum Ping Tjin

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.

Few days back an Anonymous video was circulating on social media which claims that the party has been infiltrated by foreign proxies. The video also named several PSP members and claimed that they are disrupting PSP from helming the next stage of Singapore. After police reports were made and PSP did their own internal investigation, they found out that the person who created and spread the video was their own party member Daniel Teo Weilong.

POFMA was passed in parliament in May earlier this year. Despite what the government says about protecting citizens from fake news, it is all their way of pushing down a draconian law that has the potential to stifle and kill authentic contrarian views and any point of view that the government doesn't agree with. Here are what other prominent academics, human rights advocates and even a former PAP MP have to say about POFMA.

If the Worker's Party wishes to avoid Singaporean xenophobia of the sort that drove Brexit, it must fight for an alternative to the conservative and neoliberal status quo. That means formulating a coherent and comprehensive policy platform with a wide appeal that reconnects with disaffected citizens. It means fighting for reform of the system, arguing for ideas, and mobilising people to achieve one’s ends, rather than implicitly accepting the existence of undemocratic institutions and rules which work against the people’s stated preferences.

As for Dr Poh Soo Kai, he has failed to explain his own role in this history. In Dec 1974, he helped CPM/CUF elements by providing medical aid to an injured CPM bomber, and then failed to report the matter to the authorities despite public appeals by the police for information.

The Plen had revealed how he had used the Chinese press to disseminate his opposing views. He also revealed how he had had secret meetings in Jakarta to lead the united front in Singapore and target the PAP for subversion, how he had ordered a top CPM cadre in the Workers Party to resign

According to Thum, he had discovered an archival record which contained the transcript of Lim Chin Siong's speech during the night of the riot and that in this record, Lim Chin Siong did not ask the people to “pah mata” (beat up the police) but wanted the police to join him and his cause. Thum proceeds to assert that the subsequent arrest of Lim is wrong and thus, fits into his persistent historical assessment that Lim was not a communist - although Lim had joined the outlawed communist Anti-British League and rose to prominence in several communist trade unions.