Singapore — Amid ongoing hearings for the lie former Member of Parliament Raeesah Khan said during a Parliament debate, a general theme among netizen reactions was the need to focus time and resources on more important matters.
According to the third report released on Sunday (Dec 12) by the Parliament’s Committee of Privileges, Workers’ Party (WP) chief and leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh did not tell Ms Khan to take her lie “to the grave” nor did he specifically advise her to admit the truth despite having communicated with her on multiple occasions.
It was on Aug 3, during a debate on empowering women, when then WP MP for Sengkang GRC Ms Khan told Parliament that she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station.
This turned out to be untrue, and upon further questioning by ministers, it was revealed that Ms Khan only heard the victim’s story in a support group for sexual abuse survivors as she, too, was sexually assaulted at 18 years old.
A series of hearings by the committee were then scheduled to study the events surrounding the incident.
To date, there have been four hearing sessions into the matter. The first was on Dec 2, lasting about five and a half hours, followed by another hearing the next day, lasting about three hours.
WP vice-chairman Faisal Manap testified on Dec 9, disclosing that the party’s top leaders didn’t advise Ms Khan to continue lying, contrary to her WhatsApp message indicating otherwise. The hearing, which lasted about four hours, could be accessed here.
Meanwhile, Mr Singh’s hearing lasted over eight hours. He denied in his testimony having asked Ms Khan to continue with her lie and suggested for the committee to consider asking her to go for a psychological assessment.
The report also mentioned that during an Oct 4 Parliament sitting when Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam gave a ministerial statement and sought clarification from Ms Khan, she had messaged Mr Singh, asking, “What should I do, Pritam?”
However, Mr Singh did not read the text immediately after their exchange, and Ms Khan repeated the lie on that day.
In a meeting with Ms Khan later that day, Mr Singh recalled she had considered telling the truth, to which he was relieved to hear.
When asked why Mr Singh did not advise Ms Khan to explain the situation to the police following an email on Oct 7, he said that Ms Khan’s untruth was made in Parliament, therefore, it had to be corrected there.
He then advised Ms Khan to tell the police she was going to respond in Parliament.
On Nov 1, Ms Khan admitted to lying and apologised for the incident.
According to the next steps from the third report, the committee will continue to investigate the matter and hear further evidence. “It will make its findings and recommendations in due course.”
They are scheduled to resume on Monday (Dec 13), inviting witnesses such as WP chairman Sylvia Lim and Sengkang GRC MP Associate Professor Jamus Lim.
Copies of the committee’s reports can be found here.
In response to updates on the hearings, members from the online community openly expressed that Ms Khan had already resigned from the party and as an MP on Nov 30. They felt like dragging the issue was unnecessary.
Some of the most-liked comments following a central tone were as follows.
“I am getting tired of Ms Khan news. Move on and get over with it. No one is keen nor interested anymore, and stop dragging everyone in. It’s a waste of money and time. She (made) a mistake, and she lied. She has resigned then case closed,” said a netizen whose comment received over 310 likes.
“Can’t believe they are spending so much resources, time and taxpayers money on this. It’s a matter of fact that Raeesah Khan already lied three times in Parliament, so she ought to be punished no matter what. She had also already resigned, so just move on already. There are bigger issues for these MPs to focus on, such as reducing cost of living for the citizens,” said a netizen, garnering over 300 likes.
Others noted it was a “waste of taxpayers’ money” as there were other pressing matters that should be addressed. /TISG
Read related: Letter to the Editor: Raeesah Khan lied & resigned, it’s not pertinent for Pritam Singh to give evidence — case closed