Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

WP rejects Yaw Shin Leong's claim that party leaders asked him to 'stay silent' over alleged affair

SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party (WP) has refuted claims that party leaders told former Member of Parliament (MP) Yaw Shin Leong to remain silent about the allegations of his extramarital affair in 2012.

Mr Low Thia Khiang (left) and Ms Sylvia Lim (right) at a press conference in 2012 to announce the expulsion of former MP Yaw Shin Leong. Photo: TODAY file photo

Mr Low Thia Khiang (left) and Ms Sylvia Lim (right) at a press conference in 2012 to announce the expulsion of former MP Yaw Shin Leong. Photo: TODAY file photo

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party (WP) has refuted claims that party leaders told former Member of Parliament (MP) Yaw Shin Leong to remain silent about the allegations of his extramarital affair in 2012.

Mr Leon Perera, WP’s media chair, said in a press statement on Tuesday (Dec 7) that former secretary-general Low Thia Khiang and party chairman Sylvia Lim “categorically state that they did not advise Mr Yaw to stay silent”.

“In fact, he was summoned to appear before the Workers' Party central executive committee to account for the matter, but chose not to do so.”

In his response to the WP's statement, Mr Yaw wrote on his Facebook page — under the alias of Amos Rao — that anyone involved in the incident would know what happened. 

"After staying silent for the past 10 years, I am not resurfacing this for any reason other than to put on record that accountability was done."

On Monday, in an earlier Facebook post, Mr Yaw said that Mr Low and Ms Lim advised him to remain silent when the allegations of the affair surfaced.

Mr Yaw’s post came days after the party’s current secretary-general Pritam Singh said at a press conference that the former MP was dismissed from WP because he did not hold himself accountable to the party and the public after allegations of the affair emerged.

Mr Low and Ms Lim categorically state that they did not advise Mr Yaw to stay silent.
WP media chair Leon Perera

Mr Singh was responding to a question from a reporter about the parallels between Mr Yaw’s dismissal and former member Raeesah Khan’s resignation in November.

Mr Yaw was elected MP for Hougang in the 2011 General Election.

In January 2012, allegations of his affair with a married woman emerged.

Mr Yaw told the media then that he would not be commenting on the rumours.

On Feb 15 that year, the party announced Mr Yaw’s expulsion. This triggered a by-election in the single-member constituency that saw WP member Png Eng Huat taking over Mr Yaw’s post as Hougang MP. 

Mr Yaw said in his Facebook post on Monday that he was “not entertaining any media queries and will leave (the matter) as it is”.

Related topics

Workers' Party Yaw Shin Leong Pritam Singh Low Thia Khiang Sylvia Lim

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.