Raeesah Khan shouldn’t have shared ‘untruths’ in Parliament: Pritam Singh

SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party’s (WP) Member of Parliament Raeesah Khan should not have “shared an account that contained untruths” in the House, said the WP’s secretary-general Pritam Singh on Monday (1 November).

Singh’s statement posted on WP's Facebook page comes shortly after Raeesah admitted in Parliament earlier in the day that she did not accompany an alleged rape victim to the police station as previously stated in the House and made a tearful apology.

The WP chief noted that the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act gives an MP significant freedom of speech, to the extent that what is said in Parliament cannot be impeached or questioned outside Parliament.

“However, this freedom of speech does not extend to communicating untruthful accounts, even if an MP’s motives are not malicious,” Singh said.

He noted that Raeesah has apologised to the Singapore Police Force, victims of sexual assault, her constituents, the Workers’ Party members and volunteers, and her parents.

“She shared with me that she wanted to set the record straight in Parliament. This was the correct thing to do.”

Raeesah also told fellow MPs that the account was shared by the survivor in a support group for women, which the WP MP was a part of. She revealed that she herself was a victim of sexual assault when she was 18 studying abroad.

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah asked for several clarifications from the WP MP before filing a complaint on the matter to be heard before a Committee of Privileges, noting that Raeesah had “lied to Parliament, not once, not twice, but three times”.

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