Raeesah Khan announces pregnancy on first day of Parliament

New Member of Parliament (MP) Raeesah Begum Bte Farid Khan publicly announced her pregnancy on the first day of Parliament.

President Halimah gave a 25-minute long speech after 93 newly elected Members of Parliament and two Non-constituency MPs took their oaths of allegiance. She added that the government will continue to evolve Singapore’s economic and social models, as well as its policies to suit the circumstances.

“We will encourage citizen initiatives and participation. We will listen to and examine novel ideas objectively, recognising that no solutions are right for all time,” she said.

Ms Khan, 27, is a Singaporean activist and politician of the Workers’ Party.

In an Instagram post, Ms Khan shared a photo of herself taken outside of parliament.

She captioned the post: “Baby was viciously kicking while I was swearing in so I think they’re ready for parliament too!”

This is the first official confirmation from the Sengkang GRC MP of her pregnancy, and there is no word yet on the sex of the baby. Ms Khan currently has a son who was born last year.

Ms Khan is the Member of Parliament for Sengkang GRC. The Workers’ Party made history when it clinched yet another GRC – the second multi-member constituency to ever be won by the opposition – when its team at Sengkang GRC won and unseated three political office-holders.

The four-member ward was newly carved out ahead of the election and was contested by three fresh faces from the WP – Ms Khan, Jamus Lim, and Louis Chua – and one candidate who had run in one previous election, He Ting Ru. The WP team faced off with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) team that included three prominent political office-holders and one new candidate.

The win at Sengkang GRC was especially momentous for Ms Khan. Although police reports were filed against her in the middle of the campaign period over past social media posts, Ms Khan emerged from the controversy and became the youngest member to join the latest term of Parliament and became the very first minority-race female opposition MP. /TISG