WP chief Pritam Singh 'didn’t feel a wrong had been done' to police by Raeesah Khan’s false allegations: Privileges committee

SINGAPORE — Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh did not feel that Singapore’s police force would be adversely affected by the false statement made by former party member Raeesah Khan, that a sexual assault victim was treated insensitively when she lodged a report at a police station. 

The Leader of the Opposition also confirmed during his testimony to Parliament's Committee of Privileges that he did not advise Ms Raeesah to respond to the police’s request for her assistance on the anecdote that she gave during her speech in Parliament on Aug 3. 

Nevertheless, Mr Singh agreed that the police request was reasonable, according to the committee’s third report on the hearings into Ms Raeesah's lies in Parliament which was released on Sunday (Dec 12).

Mr Singh had testified on Friday, and the report released on Sunday comprised a summary of the evidence he provided.  

Elaborating on why he felt that the police would not be affected by the lie, Mr Singh responded that the police were not a “broken-back” organisation. 

Mr Singh had been asked if it was “okay to have a lie in Parliament where the lie relates to the reaction of the police, bad reaction… to a complaint by a sexual assault victim”. He was also told by the committee that the false allegations “painted a picture of the police”.

The report also states that Mr Singh questioned the amount of work put in by the police to check on the allegation raised by Ms Raeesah.

Further, he told the committee that he did not feel that a wrong had been done to the police by Ms Raeesah’s “untruthful allegations” against them.

On Oct 7, Ms Raeesah had received an email from the police requesting her assistance on the allegations she had made in her parliamentary speech.

Mr Singh told the committee that while he did not direct Ms Raeesah to meet the police to answer their questions, he also did not tell her not to do so.

In fact, the report states that Mr Singh had advised her to inform the police that she was going to give an answer in Parliament at some point.

When the committee asked why he did not advise Ms Raeesah to explain her position to the police, despite being invited by the police to provide information on three occasions, Mr Singh said that this was because it was clear to him that Ms Khan’s untruth had to be corrected in Parliament, where it was originally made.

Mr Singh, according to the report, also agreed with the committee that up till Oct 7, there were no “objective steps” taken by him, the party or Ms Raeesah herself that suggested that she was preparing to clarify her lie in Parliament.

The report said that it was clear to Mr Singh from Oct 4 that she would clarify the lie.

In another part of his evidence on Friday, Mr Singh said there was no communication between him and Ms Raeesah from Aug 8, the day she met WP leaders to explain why she had lied in Parliament on Aug 3, until Oct 3, the day before Parliament sat that month. 

The Leader of the Opposition also acknowledged that when he met Ms Raeesah on Oct 3, he did not specifically tell her to admit the truth. 

However, he said that this was what he meant, by the words that he had chosen to use when he told her she should “take responsibility and ownership of the issue”.

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