Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh arriving at the State Courts on Oct 15. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: The prosecution wrapped up former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan’s evidence on Tuesday (Oct 15) morning, as the trial of Workers’ Party (WP) chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh entered the second day.
Singh is contesting two charges over his alleged lies to a parliamentary committee convened in November 2021 to investigate Khan’s untruth in Parliament.
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 the same year, before admitting to her lie on Nov 1, 2021.
Here are three key points from the morning:
1. Khan was surprised by WP leaders’ decision to put her through disciplinary hearing
Khan said she was informed by WP chairwoman Sylvia Lim on Nov 2, 2021, that the party had formed a disciplinary panel (DP) against her.
Lim told her over e-mail that the panel – consisting of Singh, Lim and WP vice-chair Faisal Manap – was tasked to investigate her lying episode and make recommendations to the party’s central executive committee (CEC) on steps to be taken against her.
But when she went before the panel on Nov 8, Khan was surprised to find the WP leaders “sitting on kind of a stage”, and that she was “confronted” with questions about her character and general conduct as an MP over the last 14 months, rather than her untruth to Parliament.
A big point of contention during the meeting was that she did not submit enough parliamentary questions and was not adequately present in Parliament and on the ground. Singh also spoke about her lack of discipline and punctuality, and that she was “on borrowed time” if the CEC allowed her to continue as an MP, she told the court.
Khan said she was dumbfounded by the DP’s line of questioning. Two weeks after the meeting, she messaged Singh to seek a second meeting with the DP to speak on her record.
In response, Singh said not being prepared for the DP was “not becoming of an MP”, as the DP session was a very formal meeting. He told her to e-mail the panel to request a second hearing.
Khan then met the DP on Nov 29, but came away from the session feeling “defeated and betrayed”. She felt that the WP leaders had already made up their minds that she had to resign.
The same leaders she had looked up to and trusted had used the DP to “almost pretend” that they had not been guiding her on her untruth since Aug 8, said Khan.
Asked why she did not mention to the DP Singh’s Oct 3 advice to her to keep to her lie, Khan said she assumed that the WP leaders already knew about it as “they talked to each other about everything”.
“I realised they weren’t really listening, they were just kind of writing down what I said,” she said.
2. ‘What happened to I won’t judge you?’
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sivakumar Ramasamy also led evidence on messages between Khan and WP cadres Loh Pei Ying and Yudhishthra Nathan around the time of the WP disciplinary panel proceedings.
On Nov 13, 2021, Khan disclosed to the two WP cadres that Singh had told her there would be no point continuing if she did not have the support of her teammates, which she took to mean he wanted her to resign.
In response, Nathan said: “And he gets off scot-free, (because) now people don’t know that he knew that it was a lie?”
He noted that she would still be subjected to the Committee of Privileges as a former MP, and “could damage Pritam’s reputation” with the truth. Khan replied: “I wouldn’t do that.”
Khan also forwarded to the cadres some of her Nov 22 correspondence with Singh to request a second meeting with the DP.
Singh had told her that her character and behaviour were under review by the DP because of her actions in Parliament, and her decision to stick to her untruth on Oct 4.
Nathan replied: “What happened to ‘I won’t judge you’?”
3. Why Khan decided to tell the Committee of Privileges about WP leaders’ knowledge of her untruth
Having earlier decided to protect WP’s leaders about her untruth, Khan was asked at what point she decided to tell the Committee of Privileges the truth about their involvement.
Khan said there was no way she could evade questions about when the party leaders first knew about her lie after Loh shared their Aug 8, 2021, text messages with the committee.
Following her meeting with Singh, Lim and Faisal that day, Khan had told the cadres that the WP leaders had “agreed that the best thing to do is to take the information to the grave”.
Loh and Khan had both testified to the committee on Dec 2, 2021.
Khan also noted that the WP leaders had held a press conference on Dec 2 to detail when they knew about her untruth.
Khan also noted that the leaders themselves had detailed their earlier knowledge of the matter at a press conference held on the first day of the Committee of Privileges proceedings.
Singh told reporters that Khan had told WP leaders about a week after she first spoke the untruth in Parliament, but they had decided to give her time to deal with the matter.
This is as Khan had told them she was herself a victim of sexual assault, but had not told her family about it. - The Straits Times/ANN
