Sylvia Lim flags concerns about Raeesah Khan's behaviour in testimony to privileges committee

SINGAPORE — Some aspects of Ms Raeesah Khan's behaviour had caused concerns for Workers' Party (WP) chair Sylvia Lim, including her ability to think through her actions and exercise due diligence, Parliament's Committee of Privileges heard on Monday (Dec 13). 

Ms Lim referred to what Ms Raeesah, a former WP Member of Parliament (MP), had described as her own tendency to "dissociate" and not realise what she was doing. 

The concerns emerged during interviews that WP's disciplinary panel conducted with an often tearful Ms Raeesah on Nov 8 and Nov 29. The panel was made up of Ms Lim, party chief Pritam Singh and vice-chair Faisal Manap.

The disciplinary panel was formed to look into Ms Raeesah's admission that she lied while delivering a speech on empowering women in Parliament on Aug 3. She claimed then that she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station and officers there had made insensitive remarks. 

Ms Lim was giving evidence to the Committee of Privileges and her testimony was released on Tuesday evening as part of the committee's fourth report on the hearings into Ms Raeesah's lies.

Ms Lim said that she was trying to find out why Ms Raeesah included the anecdote of accompanying a sexual assault victim in her final speech since it was not in her first draft. 

Reading off her own notes of what transpired during the interview, Ms Lim said: "(Ms Raeesah's) explanation was that she was dissociated and she did not realise what she was doing and she had gone for therapy."

"So that was worrying to us because what she was basically (saying), as far as we could understand it, was that she was doing things without thinking about what she was doing."

When Mr Singh pointed out to Ms Raeesah that he told her to substantiate that anecdote after she included it in her speech, her response was that she did not process the gravity of that and she thought it was enough that she believed that the anecdote was true, Ms Lim recounted. 

In her Nov 1 admission to Parliament that she had lied, Ms Raeesah said that she heard of the account from a sexual assault victim who was attending a women's support group meeting together with her, and she lied because she was not ready to go public about being a sexual assault victim herself. 

Ms Lim said: "Basically, she ignored or was not able to appreciate (secretary-general Pritam Singh's) advice to her and continue with it anyway. Okay, so to us, that was something of concern because how likely is that to happen in the future, if such a thing can happen this time?" 

Ms Lim had also asked Ms Raeesah during the interview whether she had ever accompanied sexual assault victims to see the police in Singapore. 

"And her answer was, 'I didn't go with them inside, but I dropped them off'. And then, 'They were my friends'. And then she went on to say, 'But this didn't happen in Singapore, but I've done it in Australia'.

"We were trying to grapple with really what was the truth, you know, as far as this whole episode was concerned, we were very unclear," Ms Lim continued. 

The WP chair also noted that Ms Raeesah was unclear on whether a by-election would be triggered if she resigned. 

Apparently, Ms Raeesah had talked with her team mates at Sengkang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) about how she should not leave because a by-election may be called. 

When questioned about how she arrived at this conclusion, Ms Raeesah responded that she was informed by someone that this was the case. 

And when probed on whether she had checked on it herself, she said that she had and that her checks revealed that the prime minister can decide whether to call for a by-election when there is a vacancy in a GRC.

The Court of Appeal ruled in 2019 that there is no duty to call a by-election when a single vacancy arises in a GRC. It was adjudicating after Singapore Democratic Party member Wong Souk Yee filed a civil suit in the High Court seeking a by-election to be held in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC after President Halimah Yacob, who was an MP of that constituency, resigned to run for the Presidential election in 2017. 

Explaining her concern over how Ms Raeesah went about with her checks, Ms Lim said: "This also raised alarm bells with me because I think as an MP, you would be expected to check such a thing before, perhaps, believing what people tell you, or you know, at least do your research."

"So this was another area of concern. I wasn't sure of her ability to actually exercise due diligence to check matters and so on." 

Ms Raeesah's mental state also featured significantly during these interviews, Ms Lim said. 

The former MP had submitted documents to the panel from a psychotherapist, who indicated that Ms Raeesah was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and that she is undergoing therapy to manage it. 

In addition to these documents, Ms Lim also said that Ms Raeesah was "extremely fragile and emotional" during these interviews.

At the second interview with the panel on Nov 29, Ms Raeesah was also "crying most of the time". 

Ms Raeesah also said that she has imposter syndrome due to her age, and that she will not speak of something unless she is very sure of it. This led the WP leaders to conclude that she was attributing her actions to her young age. 

Imposter syndrome is what psychologists say people have when they are beset with feelings of self-doubt, anxiety and the idea that they are not as good or competent as others perceive them to be. 

Elected at last year's General Election, Ms Raeesah was the youngest MP ever elected at 27 years old.

Ms Lim also revealed that, based on their own fact-finding, Ms Raeesah did attend a women's support group for those who survived a sexual assault. 

The WP leaders had followed up on information that Ms Raeesah provided the panel and they managed to reach out to a key organiser of that support group.

Ms Lim said that she spoke with this person on the phone who confirmed that Ms Raeesah did attend sessions organised by the women's support group in 2018 and 2019. 

However, the organiser could not confirm whether one of the participants shared the story of going to a police station to report her assault and being treated insensitively by police officers, due to the numerous sessions and that it occurred some time ago. 

"So our conclusion from this is that we should give (Ms Raeesah) the benefit of the doubt because verification at least (indicated) that she attended these sessions. Of course, what is shared in the sessions is confidential. So our ability to check further on this point, I think, would come to an end," Ms Lim added. 

The report and video recording of the testimonies have been made available to Parliament as well as to the public on the Parliament's website.