FIRST DISCIPLINARY PANEL SESSION
On Tuesday, Mr Sivakumar picked up the prosecution’s line of questioning on events that happened after Nov 1, 2021, which was when Ms Khan revealed her untruth in parliament.
On Nov 2, 2021, Ms Khan received a message and email from WP chair Sylvia Lim about a disciplinary panel convened to look into her conduct.
The email, read out by Mr Sivakumar, stated that the panel would comprise Singh, Ms Lim and WP vice-chair Faisal, and requested Ms Khan to provide further explanation about her support group and her account on Nov 1, 2021.
Ms Khan said she had been “very surprised” with the formality of the email, especially since the party leaders had been guiding her “from the beginning”.
Ms Khan met the party leaders on Nov 8, 2021 and Nov 29, 2021 for the disciplinary panel sessions at the party headquarters.
During the first session, Ms Khan testified that she did not remember the party leaders asking her much about the anecdote, instead focusing their questions on her personality and conduct as MP for Sengkang GRC.
Elaborating, Ms Khan said: “A big point of contention during the meeting was that I didn’t submit enough parliamentary questions. I wasn’t as present in parliament.”
Ms Khan remembered being surprised as she was new and had been on maternity leave for three months.
“I thought that I was making good progress with my performance in parliament and it had never been brought up before then. And there were also questions about whether I was present on the ground which I was also very surprised to hear.
“I did all my estate walks, I went to every single Meet-the-People sessions (MPS) unless … something really really important came up,” she testified, adding that she had rushed from parliament to MPS before returning to parliament at some point.
“So these little things that I thought I was doing well in – that no one had feedback on – were suddenly brought up in the panel.
“I was so shocked that that was the route that the panel was taking. I mean, I was so surprised I was actually kind of dumbfounded that I didn’t know how to respond.”
During the session, Singh also mentioned Ms Khan’s “lack of discipline and punctuality”, according to Ms Lim’s notes of the meeting.
“He said that I was on borrowed time if the central executive committee (CEC) allows me to continue … I guess he thought that I was going to fail,” said Ms Khan.
Mr Singh had also pointed out that Ms Khan was not “vocal enough” in meetings.
“My response to that was, I mean I was the youngest one there by quite a few years and I was – it was my first time in that kind of environment and I was freshly elected.
“I tried my best to observe and to learn as much as I could from the people that I really looked up to in this environment.”
Ms Khan also spoke about her self-doubt.
“I kind of felt like I think anybody at my age at that point in time who would be elected, and would have such a big responsibility, would also feel like maybe they don’t belong or they don’t deserve it.”
She then shared her good relationship with Compassvale residents, and spoke positively of the volunteer team she had with the panel.
“I would meet them regularly at MPS, we would also meet regularly just walking around the estate, house visits and I also built a really strong welfare team and I was really proud of the work we were doing distributing groceries, checking in on residents.”
The meeting ended with the party leaders asking Ms Khan if continuing as an MP was the right route.
Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan then intervened to ask if Ms Khan was aware Ms Lim had taken notes.
Ms Khan said that she thought Ms Lim had been taking informal notes and the gravity of the meeting had not struck her at that time.
“I didn’t know how substantial the meeting was because from my understanding with what had happened, leading up to my personal statement (is) that they would support me, they would have my back and so it was like quite a shock that, you know, they were sitting there on kind of a stage and saying all these,” said Ms Khan.
“It kind of felt like (they were) confronting things and so I didn’t even register that she was really taking notes or that these notes would become like official in a way.”
Ms Khan later discussed the first session’s panel proceedings in a group chat with then WP cadres Loh Pei Ying and Yudhishthra Nathan. She suggested that Mr Singh might want her to resign if she did not have the support of her immediate teammates.
In response, Mr Nathan allegedly sent the message: “And he gets off scot free? Because right now, people don’t know that he knew it was a lie.”
In his messages, Mr Nathan suggested that Ms Khan might still appear before the COP, and that she could damage Singh’s reputation if she revealed the truth.
Ms Khan replied that she “wouldn’t do that”, which she clarified in court to mean that she wanted to protect the party leaders as she “revered” them.
On Nov 22, 2021, Ms Khan requested to meet the disciplinary panel a second time, telling Singh via messages that she had not been prepared for the things the leaders had to say.
In response, Mr Singh said: “‘Not prepared for the things you had to say’ is unfortunately not becoming of an MP Raeesah, because you can’t make statements and then change your perspective or wish to add something new. The disciplinary panel was a formal meeting, please email us.”
When asked for her reaction to this email, Ms Khan said she was “really upset”.
“I didn’t understand where that came from … because leading up to the DP meeting itself, there wasn’t, I wasn’t told that my entire career as an MP was being reviewed or my personal conduct was being reviewed so I wasn’t prepared for that.
“And then to be confronted with that at the actual meeting and then going home kind of feeling like I did myself a disservice and then sharing those thoughts with Pritam and then having him kind of like throw it back at me was it was upsetting.”
Mr Singh later followed up with another message to Ms Khan, allegedly telling her “I hope you can see that it is precisely your character and behaviour that is under review here … in view of your conduct in parliament and your decision to stick to the anecdote on Oct 4”.
Ms Khan forwarded screenshots of the messages to Ms Loh and Mr Nathan, saying she was shocked by his reply, especially when Singh had allegedly told her earlier he would not judge her for continuing the anecdote.
