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Low Thia Khiang's turn on the stand marked by quick-fire rebuttals, occasional wit

SINGAPORE — Taking the stand for the first time on Tuesday (Oct 16), veteran politician Low Thia Khiang crossed swords with Senior Counsel Davinder Singh in a highly charged afternoon session marked by quick fire rebuttals, and occasional witty remarks which drew laughs from the public gallery.

Veteran politician Low Thia Khiang crossed swords with Senior Counsel Davinder Singh in a highly-charged afternoon session marked by quick-fire rebuttals, and occasional witty remarks which drew laughs from the public gallery.

Veteran politician Low Thia Khiang crossed swords with Senior Counsel Davinder Singh in a highly-charged afternoon session marked by quick-fire rebuttals, and occasional witty remarks which drew laughs from the public gallery.

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SINGAPORE — Taking the stand for the first time on Tuesday (Oct 16), veteran politician Low Thia Khiang crossed swords with Senior Counsel Davinder Singh in a highly charged afternoon session marked by quick-fire rebuttals, and occasional witty remarks which drew laughs from the public gallery.

But the running theme throughout the three-hour hearing on the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) case was Mr Low’s command of the English language, which drew moments of levity with the Member of Parliament’s (MP) comebacks.

This started as soon as Mr Low was sworn in as the first defence witness in multi-million-dollar lawsuits brought by an independent panel acting on behalf of AHTC and Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council — which Mr Singh represents — against Mr Low and two fellow Workers’ Party MPs, two town councillors, managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), and its owners.

When Senior Counsel Chelva Rajah said Mr Low would have a Chinese interpreter in case he had difficulty understanding or expressing certain statements being put to him, Mr Singh said he was “surprised” at the last-minute request.

Pointing out that Mr Low’s 48-page affidavit was affirmed in English without benefit of interpretation, Mr Singh said: “According to this affidavit, he has a very strong command of the English language.”

After reading out three paragraphs from Mr Low’s affidavit, he added: “This is a language of a person (who is) well versed, extremely comfortable with the English language, and so this attempt to have an interpreter by his side will only be to run down the clock, or cause it to be extended to my detriment, and to give him more time to think about his answers.”

He then charged that it was now “clearer” why Ms Sylvia Lim — one of the three WP defendants — wanted Mr Low to be cross-examined first, as his need for an interpreter “could result in an extended cross-examination, and “eat into my time to cross-examine Ms Lim”.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Singh had called Mr Low taking the stand before Ms Lim “an interesting development”, given that Ms Lim was referred to as the “principal witness” in the lawsuits.

Mr Rajah pointed out that there was no need for Mr Singh to make the unfounded allegation that Mr Low was pulling an unfair "stunt", as having the interpreter was Mr Rajah's idea.

On Tuesday, Mr Singh continued to press his point throughout his cross-examination of Mr Low.

At one point, Mr Low corrected Mr Singh for his use of the word “upgrade” when referring to the Hougang constituency’s in-house computer software, stating that it was an “upscale” instead. The software was for AHTC’s use after People’s Action Party (PAP) owned IT firm Action Information Management terminated its contract.

Mr Singh said: “Thank you for correcting my English.”

Mr Low, who is Chinese educated, replied: “Thank you, Mr Singh, for giving me a higher grade of English than Mr Lee Kuan Yew.” The remark drew laughter, even applause from the packed gallery.

Mr Low was referring to the founding Prime Minister’s previous remark about the former’s English proficiency, which was mentioned in response to an incident involving WP’s James Gomez during the 2006 General Election.

Mr Singh then asked Mr Low if he would consider the upscaling of the computer system “a herculean task”, which was the term used by FMSS co-owner How Weng Fan in her affidavit.

“What is herculean?” asked Mr Low.

Drawing giggles among the audience with his reply, Mr Singh asked how Mr Low could not know the word as it was used by Ms How, before telling him that the term meant “a big task, major task”.

He also referred to Mr Low’s command of English as he questioned him about an email sent two days after the 2011 General Election to his fellow MPs about appointing a managing agent to manage AHTC, when Aljunied Town Council already had an existing managing agent, which was CPG Facilities Management.

Mr Singh said: “Whether one is good in English or not, if you have already one managing agent appointed, you won’t use those words.”

When Mr Low denied this, Mr Singh said: “As a matter of simple English, Mr Low, that sentence cannot refer to CPG, and therefore it must logically refer to someone else.”

The eighth day of the multi-million-dollar trial was also attended by WP members such as Aljunied MP Chen Shao Mao, and non-constituency MPs, Mr Leon Perera and Mr Daniel Goh.

Mr Singh’s cross-examination of Mr Low continues on Wednesday.

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