Sylvia Lim did not discuss Raeesah Khan's lie with WP leaders as she left it to Pritam Singh: Report

[SINGAPORE] For months, Workers' Party (WP) chairman Sylvia Lim knew of Raeesah Khan's lie but did not discuss with fellow leaders a time frame for addressing this matter as she had left WP chief Pritam Singh to handle it, Lim told the Committee of Privileges.

This was as she believed Singh knew Khan best and was guiding her, and so she left it to him to follow-up on this matter after Aug 8, when Khan had first confessed her lie in Parliament to Lim, Singh, and WP vice-chairman Faisal Manap.

According to a special report released on Tuesday (Dec 14), the fourth so far, Lim also did not discuss the matter with Singh, Faisal, or with anyone else. In particular, Lim confirmed that she did not discuss with the party leadership whether Khan's lie would be clarified in Parliament during the September sitting. Khan did not attend that session due to a case of shingles.

Lim said she did not do any of these things because she felt that Singh was the WP leader who was guiding Khan and was closest to her. "Basically, I left it to Pritam (Singh) to follow-up with her because he knows her best," she said. "Historically, she was helping him in his Meet-(the)-People session in Eunos - I think for about a year prior to the GE - and I think he had some communications, on-and-off, with her family."

During a hearing on Monday of over three hours, Lim also told the committee that she could not "fathom" the possibility that Singh would have given Ms Khan the choice between telling the truth and lying again. It was for this reason that she did not clarify with Singh what he and Khan had discussed and agreed to, between Aug 8 and their meeting on Oct 12.

Lim provided the committee with a copy of notes that she had taken during the WP's disciplinary panel interview with Khan on Nov 29, which were reproduced in the report.

The notes showed Singh asking Khan if she could recall their meeting before the October Parliament session, and that he had told her it was her call on what to do.

According to Lim's notes, Singh had asked Khan if the need to tell the truth in Parliament had occurred to her. Khan then replied that this did occur to her, but she had not done so due to her guilt and her own experience. Khan also thought the matter would not come up during the sitting.

The notes captured Singh having asked Khan "can't lie right?" to which she agreed.

When asked for her views on what Singh had said to Khan during this interview, Lim told the committee that he seemed to have said that it was for Khan to decide what to do on Oct 4, if the issue arose in Parliament.

In another part of Lim's evidence, she described how she could not conceive of Singh asking Ms Khan to lie. "Lim said...she would not have believed that Singh would have given Khan a choice to lie, if the matter arose again, and that she could not 'fathom' the possibility that Mr Singh would have given Khan the choice between telling the truth and lying again," said the report.

In his evidence before the committee, Singh said he told Khan she had to take ownership of the issue if it came up again in Parliament, but that he had no plans to voluntarily raise the issue.

The report also disclosed that Lim had told Khan at their Oct 12 meeting that she did not have to respond to the police's Oct 7 request for an interview, since Khan was going to be making a clarification in Parliament.

Lim agreed with the committee that as an experienced politician, she immediately appreciated the gravity and seriousness of the matter on finding out about Khan's Aug 8 untruth in Parliament.

But while the lie would have to be clarified, Lim did not apply her mind, at that time, to the question of how and when it should be corrected, the report added.

Lim told the committee that she did not recall any conversation between Singh, Faisal and herself on Aug 8 concerning Khan's lie in Parliament, or the next steps that needed to be taken.

She also did not say anything to Khan then about next steps to correct the Parliamentary record as Khan had to speak with her parents first about her sexual assault before anything else could be done.

Lim said that she disagreed with Khan's account that the opposition party's leaders had told her to take her lie "to the grave", which aligns with what Singh said in his hearing last week.

Singh had told the committee on Friday (Dec 9) that Khan's recounting this was a "complete, utter fabrication".

Following the meeting between WP leaders and Khan on Aug 8, Lim said no concrete steps that she was aware of were taken towards having Khan go to Parliament to clarify the lie.

Lim said she did not subsequently communicate with Khan about her Aug 3 lie, and did not check whether she had informed her family about having been a victim of sexual assault, said the report.

An email the party chief sent on Oct 1 to all WP MPs reminding them about the need to be able to substantiate what they said in the House meant that he had "his eye on the matter" involving Khan, she added. "I had my reasons for leaving the matter for Pritam (Singh) to follow up on, so I did not myself speak to her on these matters, to confirm what had been done or not done," said Lim.

THE STRAITS TIMES