(Or “Best not to gild the lily/ Why liddat PJ?“)
In How PAP can tame cyberspace while making money (cont’d) I pointed out that the KPKBing about PJ Thum being roughed up by the PAP adminstration came from some (not many) Oxford academics and not the colleges that comprise Oxford University.
Here’s what Project Southeast Asia says about him:
Thum Ping Tjin (“PJ”) is co-ordinator of Project Southeast Asia, and a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.
http://projectsoutheastasia.com/people/academics/pingtjin-thum
Here’s what Green Temple, an Oxford college, says about PJ Thum (the only reference on the University’s website about PJ)
Dr Pingtjin Thum, BA, MSc, DPhil
Senior Research Fellow, Sunway University, Malaysia / Research Fellow, Jeffrey Cheah Institute on South East Asia
He’s only visiting leh.
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Here’s the various types of the Green Temple’s Fellows
Interesting Visiting Fellows roles are not described. Compare that with the descriptions of the others.
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Anyway his “real” posts are
Senior Research Fellow, Sunway University, Malaysia / Research Fellow, Jeffrey Cheah Institute on South East Asia
Anyone heard of these? yuenchungkwong?
Not Oxford university entities are they?
And no mention of his role as “Co-ordinator Project Southeast Asia”.
This leads conveniently to Project Southeast Asia. I had tot that Project Southeast Asia is a centre in Oxford like the Centre for Islamic Studies etc i.e. that it’s a corporate entity of the university like the colleges. It ain’t
Southeast Asia is a major player on the global stage, and growing ever more so. Recognising this, the University of Oxford has created Project Southeast Asia, with the ultimate aim of establishing a Centre for Southeast Asian Studies – a home for Southeast Asia in the heart of one of the world’s premier universities. The Project acts as a focal point for academic and research activity, bringing together many of the most distinguished scholars in the field of Southeast Asian studies, together with the best and brightest new academic talent, for the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge about countries in the Southeast Asian region.
While emphasising core disciplines of history, politics/international relations, anthropology, human sciences, medicine, and development studies, it also addresses and offers input into important contemporary issues facing Southeast Asia, such as regional security, infectious diseases, environmental change, ageing and sustainable development. It supports research, student degree programmes, library and archival resources, institutional exchanges and academic events, and ensures that the most talented students, regardless of need, will be able to study Southeast Asia at Oxford.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/international-oxford/oxfords-global-links/asia-south-east/asia-south-east-region?wssl=1
Coming back to PJ, here’s a long extract from the constructive, nation-building ST: it spoke to the university’s spokesman. To summarise he is no Research Fellow, only a research associate, who is not an employee of the university.
Historian Thum Ping Tjin is a research associate with Oxford University’s School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, said a university spokesman yesterday.
Responding to queries from The Straits Times, Oxford University’s head of communications Stephen Rouse said Dr Thum was awarded a doctorate in history by Oxford in 2011. He added that Dr Thum is a Visiting Fellow of the Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group within the school, and therefore an affiliate of the school.
Mr Rouse also said there are three categories of research associates with the school – anthropologists based in Oxford, recent doctorate graduates of the department, or social scientists based outside the university working with members of the department.
Dr Thum falls into the third category, he said, adding that research associates are not employees of the school or university. “But they are valued colleagues with whom we have shared research interests.”
Oxford’s response came after the Parliament Secretariat yesterday wrote to Dr Thum asking him to “clarify his academic credentials”.
In a press statement yesterday, the Office of the Clerk of Parliament said Dr Thum’s written representation to the Select Committee on deliberate online falsehoods had stated that he was a research fellow in history at Oxford. It noted that there have been varying accounts, citing how Dr Thum informed the committee during the hearing that he held a “visiting professorship in anthropology”, among other things.
ST 14 April 2018
It’s very clear that he was exaggerating his credentials. Funny because a doctorate from Oxford is a many-splendour thing, showing that the S’porean holder is no half-past six, balls licking, broen-nosing academic from a local university, but a patrician in high academic standing. He was gilding the lily and was caught with his pants down.
When I read about him a long time ago, I was suspicious about him calling himself “Research Fellow, University of Oxford” because my understanding has always been that Oxford-based Fellows are attached to a specific college or centre or school. No such thing as University of Oxford Fellow.
Whatever, with enemies like him, the PAP has no problem getting 60-70% of the popular vote.
Sad.
As my mongrel dogs said when I asked them their views on PJ, “To call himself a ‘Research Fellow’ or ‘visting professor’ when he’s only a ‘research associate'” is like us calling ourselves purebreds: misrepresenting at the very least.”
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 