Han Hui Hui forcibly removed from Select Committee hearing after causing disruption

SINGAPORE — Political activist Han Hui Hui was dragged out of the public hearing by Select Committee on deliberate online falsehoods in Parliament House on Thursday (March 29), after causing disruption and refusing to leave despite being asked to do so.

Ms Han was not invited by the panel to share her views on the Government's bid to combat deliberate online falsehoods, and was seated in the gallery when the incident happened.

In a statement on Thursday evening, the Parliament spokesman said: "Ms Han Hui Hui was brought out of the public hearing of the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods by Parliament staff this afternoon, for creating a disturbance in Parliament while the Committee was hearing evidence.

"This was after she was requested to leave, but refused to do so."

According to photographer Shawn Danker, 39, who was seated in the public hearing area, Ms Han arrived at the hearing at around 2.15pm holding up a stack of paper in what looked like posters.

The image is the cover of the book "Authoritarian Rule of Law - Legislation, Discourse and Legitimacy in Singapore", written by Dr Jothie Rajah. Dr Rajah, who is a research professor at the American Bar Foundation, is the ex-wife of Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam. Mr Shanmugam was questioning historian Thum Ping Tjin on his representations to the Select Committee when the incident happened. 

The book, which was published in 2012, focuses on Singapore and "shows how prosperity, public discourse, and a rigorous observance of legal procedure have enabled a reconfigured rule of law such that liberal form encases illiberal content", according to a synopsis by the publisher Cambridge Press. 

When approached by parliament staff about the poster, Ms Han insisted that they were blank paper for her to take down notes during the hearing.

She sat for a few minutes before she started to hold up the paper. She then put it down and held it up again. It went on for a few times.

Parliament staff, along with police officers, were then seen approaching Ms Han again, asking her to leave the public hearing room. She refused and when one of the female staff tried to hold her, Ms Han replied: "Don't touch me."

She eventually handed over her stack of paper. When told she needed to answer some questions outside the public hearing room, Ms Han again refused to leave.

The staff then dragged her out of her seat and carried her out of the public hearing room to another room next door.