SINGAPORE: Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh took the stand for the first time on Tuesday (Nov 5), to open the defence’s case in a trial that came about after Ms Raeesah Khan’s lie in parliament.
He is contesting two charges of lying to the Committee of Privileges over what he wanted his former member of parliament (MP) to do about her own lie.
Ms Khan had lied in parliament on Aug 3, 2021, about accompanying a rape victim to a police station, where the victim was asked questions about her dressing and alcohol consumption.
The COP, which looks into any complaint alleging breaches of parliamentary privilege, was convened to look into her lie, and in the aftermath, Singh was charged with lying to the COP.
So far, Ms Khan and her two former assistants, long-time WP members Loh Pei Ying and Yudhishthra Nathan, were generally aligned in their reading of how Singh had asked Ms Khan to maintain her false narrative and that he would not judge her if she did so.
On Tuesday, Singh took the stand for the first time to tell the story in his own words.
Here are key quotes from his testimony.
1. On how he felt when informed by an assistant that Ms Khan was crying in the Leader of the Opposition’s (LO’s) office after being questioned on her rape anecdote on Aug 3, 2021
“I was informed by one of my legislative assistants that she was in the LO office and she was crying there. I didn’t quite understand what that was about, so I leave the chamber, go to my office and essentially instruct Raeesah to just clarify, give the Minister of State the details he’s requesting, but she said she couldn’t contact that person.”
2. On what he understood by Ms Khan’s question to him if it would “help” if someone else came forth with their sexual assault experience
“It would appear that she did not want to deal with the anecdote … She says would it help if someone came forth with their experience, I reply … I say no, Raeesah, this episode has been highlighted, we have to square away the issue like a responsible MP should.”
3. On why he asked Ms Khan via text for more details a day after she shared her rape anecdote in parliament
“At the session in parliament on (Aug 3, 2021), there were some clarifications asked of Raeesah by the Minister of State (MOS) and in my view her replies were … defensive to me, and I felt that there was more to this, and in addition I think the questions asked by the MOS really hadn’t been answered yet, so I was curious (as) to what was the truth behind her anecdote.”
4. On how Ms Khan first told him her anecdote was a lie
“To my recollection, she asked to call me, and (she) called me and shared with me that she had not been successful in contacting the individual.
“And … if I recall correctly, I continued asking her for more details and thereafter at a certain point she asks me whether there’s such a thing as confidentiality, and I tell her – look, I’m the secretary-general of the party, I want to know whether this happened or not, and she abruptly told me, no it did not happen … I was very unhappy with her, I was actually very upset and I cut the call and I told her we’ll talk about it.”
5. On why he was quite sure that the issue would be followed up on by the government
“In view of what Minister of State Desmond Tan had said, he made it clear that they wanted to follow up on it by saying it won’t be swept aside.
“The other matter of course is, I know how the PAP operates, and whenever there’s a chance to uh, fix an opposition MP or get tough with the opposition, they would jump at the chance.”
6. On whether he had asked Ms Khan to continue the false narrative or take the lie to the grave, or if he had stated that conservative religious men would not accept an MP who was raped:
“No, I did not.”
7. On what he meant when he told Ms Khan on Oct 3, 2021, that she was going to be back in parliament the next day and the anecdote might come up, and she would have to take ownership and responsibility over the issue.
“In the context of someone who had lied to me, lied to parliament, and tried to cover up the lie in the course of my trying to find out more about it, in my view, those words were clear that she had to tell the truth, and that’s what I meant by ownership and responsibility … The lie was told by Raeesah, and the onus was on her to clarify the lie in parliament … All MPs … should, must, hold themselves to a certain standard and I think the very fact that our MP had lied was unacceptable and she had to correct that.”
8. On why he followed up with “I will not judge you”
“When I said ownership and responsibility to her, she started appearing a little nervous and uncomfortable and I followed that up by telling her, I will not judge you, and what I meant by that was – I will not judge you if you take ownership and responsibility.”
9. On his meeting with Ms Loh Pei Ying and Mr Yudhishthra Nathan on Oct 12, 2021
“They did not appear keen for Raeesah to admit to what was the truth of what she had said on Aug 3, and Yudhish in particular was suggesting to continue with her lie … and that was very strange to me because of where matters had already arrived at.
“I rejected that and said – look, she would have to clarify and make a personal statement. They weren’t so convinced and I voluntarily told them that I had spoken to Mr Low (Thia Khiang) and we were all in agreement that a personal statement would have to be made.”
