Singapore — In the beginning, it was so new and compelling. That’s when Raeesah Khan was being questioned by Parliament’s Committee of Privileges.
The committee, COP for short, had called up the former Workers’ Party MP after she admitted lying to Parliament in a speech on Aug 3, and subsequently.
Few people, even the most avid followers of Singapore politics, had ever seen anything like it. Some were riveted to their smartphones or laptops, watching the initial sessions all the way through.
But now it has been two weeks since the hearings began on Dec 2. And interest seems to be waning as the committee digs in and digs deep into what may well seem like mindless minutiae to those who are neither politicians nor lawyers.
Take this snippet from the hearings:
Sengkang GRC MP Jamus Lim, said he was unaware that Ms Khan had admitted lying to Workers’ Party leaders when the party’s Central Executive Committee approved the formation of the disciplinary panel on Nov 2.
When asked whether he had expected that the CEC would have been told of Ms Khan’s admission, he answered: “If there was anything material, I trust the leadership would have shared that with us.”
No wonder the online community is hardly enthralled.
One commenter asked, “Don’t our MPs have more pressing issues to deal with in this pandemic situation?”
Others agreed.
Another netizen asked, “Could the people petition or have a say in this RK issue?”
They had also heard over recent days Workers’ Party secretary-general Pritam Singh, party chair Sylvia Lim, and vice-chairman Muhamad Faisal Manap, questioned by the committee about former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan having lied in Parliament.
On Dec 9, Mr Manap testified and confirmed that the top leadership knew Ms Khan lied to Parliament, shortly after she made that speech on Aug 3, but that others in the party had not been told.
On Dec 10, it was Mr Singh’s turn. He was questioned for nearly nine hours that day on issues ranging from the impact of Ms Khan’s falsehoods on the police, whether he had approved a statement she made, and why he did not direct her to respond to the police.
In her testimony, Ms Sylvia Lim said she was “very frustrated’ when Ms Khan failed to correct her lies on Oct 4 when she was questioned in the House Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam. Instead of coming clean, “there was a doubling down on the untruth,” Ms Lim said.
Want more of that? Or, do you feel that it’s time to move on?
/TISG
Read also: Netizens: Edwin Tong’s manner of questioning Pritam Singh reflects badly on himself
Netizens: Edwin Tong’s manner of questioning Pritam Singh reflects badly on himself