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SINGAPORE – The same three Workers’ Party (WP) leaders who learnt of former WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lie in Parliament as early as Aug 8, 2021, were also the ones who made up the disciplinary panel (DP) that eventually recommended she be expelled from the party.
On Nov 7, Deputy Attorney-General Ang Cheng Hock used this point to make the case that this was part of WP chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh’s attempt to cover up the three WP leaders’ involvement in getting Ms Khan to stick to her lie.
Singh is fighting two charges over his alleged lies to a parliamentary committee convened to look into the lying controversy involving Ms Khan.
Ms Khan had, on Aug 3, 2021, told Parliament about how she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station, where the victim was treated insensitively.
She repeated the claim before the House on Oct 4 of the same year, before admitting to her lie on Nov 1, 2021.
The DP, comprising Singh, WP chair Sylvia Lim and vice-chair Faisal Manap, presented its recommendations to WP’s central executive committee (CEC) on Nov 30, 2021, which voted to expel Ms Khan if she did not resign.
Mr Ang put it to Singh that the WP chief was using the DP process to “quickly close this matter” and get rid of Ms Khan.
“You wanted to cover up your own involvement, Ms Lim’s involvement and Mr Faisal’s involvement… You were figuratively throwing (Ms Khan) under the bus,” he added.
Disagreeing, Singh said he and the WP leaders could not cover up their involvement if there was anything of that sort.
Singh was also asked why the fact that Ms Khan had told the WP leaders about her lie five days after she said it in Parliament was not brought up as a mitigating factor.
The mitigating factors that the DP presented to the CEC included the fact that Ms Khan had corrected the record at the Nov 1 Parliament sitting.
Singh said he would not call her Aug 8 admission a mitigating factor since she was probed about her anecdote multiple times before admitting that she lied, and she had not cleared the record in Parliament by that point.
Singh also said he did not see it relevant to add, as part of his submissions to the CEC, that he did not follow up with Ms Khan on her lie after Aug 8, 2021, as he was busy.
Mr Ang then questioned Singh on the aggravating factors listed in the DP recommendations and asked why he did not see it apt to add that Ms Khan had “dragged her feet” for more than two months, since Singh said he had been waiting on her to tell her parents and get ready to come clean about her lie from Aug 8.