WP leaders said they did not advise ex-MP Yaw Shin Leong to stay silent over allegations

[SINGAPORE] The Workers' Party (WP) on Tuesday (Dec 7) dismissed its former MP Yaw Shin Leong's claim that he had been hushed by party leaders in the lead-up to his expulsion from the opposition faction in 2012 over allegations of extramarital affairs.

In a media statement, the WP said its then secretary-general Low Thia Khiang and chairman Sylvia Lim "categorically state that they did not advise Mr Yaw to stay silent", and that Yaw had been summoned to appear before the party's central executive committee (CEC) to account for the matter "but chose not to do so".

Yaw had posted on Facebook under the alias of "Amos Rao" on Monday (Dec 6), disputing WP chief Pritam Singh's account of his departure from the party in 2012 - a year after he won the Hougang single seat.

The issue was raised during a WP press conference last week on former Sengkang MP Raeesah Khan's resignation.

Singh had said that the party had sacked Yaw for failing to "account himself to the party" in the wake of the rumours of his personal indiscretions.

Yaw disagreed, writing on Facebook on Monday that he had in fact spoken to Low and Lim and "was advised to stay silent".

He said he had placed "party first before self", and kept mum and resigned from the CEC to minimise the fallout to the WP.

Yaw's broadside came as the WP remains embroiled in an ongoing political saga over Khan, who is being investigated by the Committee of Privileges for lying in Parliament about a rape victim's experience at a police station.

The committee released a special report last Friday (Dec 3) after hearing testimonies from Khan and 2 WP members that party leaders had told her to continue the lie. This contradicts statements made by WP leaders' at a press conference the day before, with Singh saying they had given Khan time to deal with the matter after being told she had been a sexual assault victim herself.

Yaw successfully defended Hougang and was MP there from 2011 to 2012, after Low left the seat to contest Aljunied GRC.

THE STRAITS TIMES