Ex-NCMP Daniel Goh says he is expelled from Workers' Party

SINGAPORE — Former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Daniel Goh said on Thursday (June 1) that he has been expelled from the Workers' Party (WP).

The reason for the expulsion given to him in a letter by WP pertains to him disclosing information about the "inner workings" of the opposition party, he added in a Facebook post.

He attached a copy of the WP letter in his post, with much of its content redacted. He said that he cannot reveal the content because the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) had "requested nicely" that he not disclose the correspondence due to information about the “inner workings” of the party.

"Though, ironically, that is the very reason given for the expulsion. Such is the closed loop in the lack of accountability," he wrote.

When contacted by TODAY, WP declined comment.

In the redacted letter dated May 26 that Associate Professor Goh posted, his expulsion is to take "immediate effect". 

Although he did not elaborate on what these "inner workings" of the party were, he said last year that WP had set up a disciplinary committee to look into his Facebook posts on the Raeesah Khan case.  

He claimed then that WP said the committee wanted to interview him because his posts had allowed WP’s “political opponents” to have an inside understanding of how the party operates and had “cast a cloud” on the character of the leadership of the party.

Assoc Prof Goh made several Facebook posts at the time about how the party handled Ms Raeesah’s admission on Nov 1 in 2021 that she had lied in Parliament.

Ms Raeesah stepped down in November that year after admitting to lying in Parliament. She was found guilty of abusing parliamentary privilege and fined S$35,000. 

In one Facebook post, Assoc Prof Goh urged the party's disciplinary panel — which was tasked to look into Ms Raeesah’s admission of lying — not to “throw her under the bus”.  

On Thursday, Assoc Prof Goh, who is now associate provost of undergraduate education at the National University of Singapore (NUS), said that "his retirement from politics is complete" with the expulsion. 

"With this closure, I can now focus on serving my country in my responsibilities in NUS," he wrote on Facebook. 

"Gotta update my CV to say I was expelled from WP for calling out the leadership."

A sociologist at NUS, he started volunteering with WP in the 2011 General Election and joined as a member in 2013. 

In the 2015 polls, he was among the candidates in the WP team who contested but lost in the East Coast Group Representation Constituency.

WP later nominated him to take up the NCMP post after its member Lee Li Lian, who lost the Punggol East ward to Mr Charles Chong from the People’s Action Party, declined to take up the seat.

In 2020, Assoc Prof Goh stepped down from his appointments in the party’s CEC to focus on recovering from an unspecified “health condition” and did not contest the General Election that year.