By: Obbana Rajah

There has been an open letter addressed to the chairman of the Select Committee on fake news, MP Charles Chong, in the defence of Dr Thum Ping Tjin and academic freedom.

Academics and professors from various universities around the world have signed the letter, and the list of signatures continues to grow.

The letter not only calls for a different approach in the examining of evidence submitted, it also expresses much disdain towards the way in which PJ was questioned.

It states,

“The minister who interrogated Dr Thum has not undergone any such training; he is not even qualified to undertake a peer review of Dr Thum’s research.

If the government of Singapore is genuinely interested in discovering the truth about Operation Coldstore, there is a simple solution: open the state archives and allow historians free access to interrogate the documentary evidence.

In the meantime, we hope you will offer Dr Thum a full apology for his unacceptable treatment by your committee, and exercise your responsibilities as chairman to ensure in future that the committee sticks to its remit and its not used to intimidate your fellow citizens”.

Netizens are very much in support of this letter.

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