Sylvia Lim (left) and Faisal Manap are the chair and vice-chair of the Workers' Party respectively. - MDDI
SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh’s conviction has implications for party leaders Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap, which will be part of upcoming discussions in Parliament, said Leader of the House Indranee Rajah.
All three WP MPs had disputed the findings of a 2022 report by the Committee of Privileges (COP) regarding their involvement in former MP Raeesah Khan’s lies to the House, hence Parliament had postponed making a decision then, she noted in a statement on Dec 22.
Now that Pritam's court case has concluded and he has been found guilty of lying, these matters will be raised for discussion in January, she said
“The COP’s findings have been borne out by the court judgments,” she added.
The parliamentary committee had said in its report that if the three leaders had guided Khan to repeat her lie in Parliament, then such conduct would be unbecoming of a parliamentarian and would amount to contempt of Parliament.
Lim is the party’s chair, while Faisal is vice-chair.
Indranee was responding to media queries after her statement on Dec 17 that Parliament will discuss in January an “appropriate response” to Pritam's conviction for lying to the COP.
The COP had in February 2022 released a report, which said the “appropriate sanctions” for the three WP leaders for their roles in Khan’s untruths to the House and to the COP would be deferred until the end of investigations or criminal proceedings against Pritam.
In her Dec 22 statement, Indranee reiterated some of the findings of the COP, including Faisal’s refusal to answer the COP’s queries that was referred to the Public Prosecutor for possible contempt of Parliament. After investigation, he was issued a police advisory, she noted.
The COP also found that both Lim and Faisal had lied under oath by denying that they had told Khan to hide her untruth in an August 2021 meeting.
Responding to queries, the WP said it “notes the comments made, and the matters raised will be addressed in Parliament at the appropriate time”.
Khan resigned as MP for Sengkang GRC in November 2021, after repeating a false anecdote in Parliament.
The COP convened in 2021 called in Khan, Pritam, Lim and Faisal, among others, for questioning. In its report in 2022, the committee recommended that Khan be fined while Pritam be referred to the Public Prosecutor.
Pritam's trial began in October 2024, nearly three years later. He was found by the courts to have lied to the COP on two key issues: on whether he had told Khan to take her lie to the grave, and what he meant when he told Khan that he would not judge her.
On Dec 4, the High Court upheld Pritam's Feb 17 conviction on two counts of lying to the Committee of Privileges (COP), which included a S$14,000 fine.
Indranee had said on Dec 17 that separate to the WP’s internal processes, it was necessary for Parliament to take notice of the Leader of the Opposition’s actions and convictions for lying under oath. She added that lying under oath is a serious matter.
“In some countries, leaders who have lied, cheated or flagrantly broken the law still escape any legal or political consequences. We cannot accept such standards in Singapore.”
Indranee, who is Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance, also described the facts of the case as “disturbing”.
She also noted some findings from the court proceedings, including that the decision to come clean was made only when former WP chief Low Thia Khiang advised Pritam and Lim on Oct 11, 2021, that the truth should be clarified in Parliament.
After Khan confessed in the House to lying, Pritam formed a disciplinary committee comprising himself, Lim and Faisal, to find out why Khan had lied.
“This was a travesty, given that the three of them already knew about the lie months earlier, and it was in fact Pritam who guided Khan to continue with the lie,” Indranee said.
None of these facts were disclosed when the disciplinary panel was formed, she added.
WP said on Dec 17 that it had started the party’s “internal processes” in the light of the Dec 4 High Court judgment. - The Straits Times/ANN
