Singapore — Workers’ Party head Pritam Singh revealed at the Committee of Privileges hearing on Dec 10 that former WP MP Raeesah Khan told him that she suffers from dissociation.
At one point in his nearly nine-hour hearing, Mr Singh was asked by Culture, Community, and Youth Minister Edwin Tong about Ms Khan’s saying that he, along with party chair Sylvia Lim and vice-chair Faisal Abdul Manap, agreed that “the best thing to do is take the information (that she had lied in Parliament) to the grave.”
Mr Singh called this “a complete lie.”
Mr Tong then asked him why he thinks Ms Khan would lie, having just come from a meeting with the WP leadership.
“I know something that she revealed to the disciplinary panel on the 29th of November, which is quite telling to me,” answered Mr Singh.
“She told the panel that she suffers from dissociation.
Now, it was the first time I heard of it. I asked her what dissociation was. She said ‘It’s when I talk without thinking’,” he said.
“I asked her, ‘Don’t you think that’s dangerous for an MP?’ And she said ‘yes.’”
He added that “it may be helpful for this committee to call for some psychiatric report or evaluation on Ms Khan.”
For the uninitiated regarding mental health matters, it’s also helpful to find out what dissociation is.
As it turns out, the term describes not one condition but a range of experiences. It is not uncommon for many people to experience a mild symptom of dissociation, such as feeling disconnected from their environment, especially when feeling stressed.
While showing symptoms of dissociation may be a result of trauma, people who show several symptoms over a period of time may be suffering from a dissociative disorder or may have another mental illness such as anxiety.
Here are some of the symptoms of dissociation: forgetting about time periods, events, and personal information, experiencing problems with handling intense emotions, depression, anxiety or mood swings, feeling disconnected from one’s own body or the world around you, not having a sense of who one is, having clear multiple identities, and feeling little or no physical pain.
According to one mental health site, “Dissociation is one way the mind copes with too much stress, such as during a traumatic event.
Experiences of dissociation can last for a relatively short time (hours or days) or for much longer (weeks or months).”
Ms Khan dropped a bombshell in Parliament on Nov 1, admitting she had lied when she told the House on Aug 3 she had accompanied a victim of sexual assault to the police station and accused the police of making inappropriate remarks.
During a debate on empowering women, she had alleged that the police mishandled the case of a rape victim, whom she claimed to have accompanied to file a police report in 2018.
She said the interview had ended with the victim, then 25, leaving the police station crying, as the police officer allegedly made comments about her clothing and the fact that she had been drinking.
On Nov 30, she announced her resignation from the Workers’ Party, and consequently, her seat in Parliament as well.
She apologised to the Police, the rape survivor, Members of Parliament, the Workers’ Party, her constituents, and her family.
In her apology, she revealed that she herself had been a victim of sexual abuse at 18 while studying overseas, and had heard the victim’s story in a support group for sexual abuse survivors. /TISG