A psychiatrist has assessed that former Member of Parliament (MP) Raeesah Khan “did not suffer from any significant psychiatric disorder” that would impair her ability to speak truthfully, while she testified that it was “extremely out of of line” for Workers’ Party (WP) leaders Pritam Singh and Sylvia Lim to use mental illness as a means to discredit her.

This was recorded in a special report by Parliament's Committee of Privileges on Wednesday (Dec 22). It is the sixth such report to be released by the committee and summarises the testimonies provided on Wednesday by Ms Raeesah and Dr Christopher Cheok, the acting chief and senior consultant from the department of forensic psychiatry at the Institute of Mental Health.

Dr Cheok was invited to testify before the committee as a medical expert after a suggestion was made by Mr Singh, WP's chief, who told the committee previously to undertake a psychiatric evaluation of Ms Raeesah.

The psychiatrist assessed that from Aug 3 to Dec 3 this year, Ms Raeesah “did not suffer from any significant psychiatric disorder that would have impaired her ability to speak truthfully in Parliament (on Aug 3, Oct 4 and Nov 1) or before the Committee of Privileges (on Dec 2 and Dec 3)”, the report stated.

Specific to Ms Raeesah’s mental state on Aug 3 when she first made a false claim in Parliament during a speech, Dr Cheok said that it was not done impulsively or as a result of dissociation or any other psychiatric disorder.