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".

They also pointed to the fact that the examiner's report stated that it was "a well produced thesis … based on an excellent understanding of the historiography relevant to the subject, and on a significant range of primary sources".

They reiterated: "As the holder of an Oxford Doctor of Philosophy in History and an active researcher who has produced a number of refereed academic books and journal articles on his chosen subject, Dr PJ Thum is and remains an academically trained historian."

On Monday, Mr Chong accused Dr Thum of working with a foreign counterpart to engineer public support for himself, and "to try to influence and subvert our parliamentary processes". He also released an email exchange between two of the academics associated with Project South-east Asia, which were copied to Singapore's Parliament Secretariat "inadvertently".

"The information now available suggests that there has been a coordinated attempt, with foreign actors involved, to try to influence and subvert our parliamentary processes," Mr Chong had added.

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament said there was also the "as yet unresolved matter of Dr Thum's precise academic affiliation to Oxford University", with the Singaporean academic giving himself "a bewildering variety of titles" in his evidence to the Select Committee. These titles ranged from "Research Fellow in History" to "visiting professorship in anthropology", "almost all of which turned out to be inaccurate, non-existent or misleading", said Mr Chong.

The letter from the three Oxford academics came on the heels of a public statement by Oxford University senior lecturer Philip Kreager who refuted Mr Chong's allegations of a conspiracy which he said "exists only in (Mr Chong's) own imagination". Dr Kreager also called for "this sort of vilification of (Dr Thum to) stop", and reiterated a demand for the Select Committee to apologise to Dr Thum.

Dr Thum has been in the news since his appearance before the Select Committee at a public hearing on March 29. He had claimed in his written submission to the committee that historically, there has only been one body that has peddled falsehoods — the People's Action Party (PAP) Government, which has been spreading "fake news" about Operation Coldstore, for example, "for narrow party-political gain".

He was grilled on his research for six hours by committee member, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, who challenged him with evidence to the contrary.

Following Dr Thum's appearance before the committee, an open letter in support of him and academic freedom in Singapore surfaced, signed by nearly 300 academics from various countries. The letter has been submitted to the committee.