Parliament refers WP leaders to courts: Has this happened before?

Last year, the nation was in uproar when it was found that Workers' Party's (WP) Raeesah Khan (Sengkang GRC) had breached her parliamentary privileges.

On Nov 1, she admitted to lying in Parliament about details of a sexual assault case she alleged was mishandled by the police. She also apologised to the police and retracted the anecdote.

As Khan had lied in Parliament on three occasions, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah raised a formal complaint to the Committee of Privileges (COP), which is in charge of looking into any complaints alleging breaches of privilege.

During her testimony to the committee, Khan insisted that when she had confessed to WP chief Pritam Singh, chairman Sylvia Lim and vice-chairman Faisal Manap on Aug 8, Singh had told her to "take it to the grave". 

According to Section 21 of the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act, when a member is found guilty of abusing parliamentary privilege and the offence is mentioned in Part 5 of the act, the matter can be referred to the Public Prosecutor. 

The committee's recommendation is that Singh be referred to the Public Prosecutor "for his conduct before the Committee" and further investigations are needed to decide if criminal proceedings ought to be instituted. 

Faisal will also be referred to the Public Prosecutor for further investigations into his refusal to answer relevant questions by the COP.

The committee added that sanctions for all three leaders would be deferred until after "investigations and/or criminal proceedings" against Singh are completed. 

This is believed to be the first time a case has been referred to the courts.

There have been similar incidents where the COP or Parliament did not involve the courts.

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For example, in 1996, then-Health Minister George Yeo filed a complaint against four representatives — Dr Chee Soon Juan, S Kunalen, Wong Hong Toy and Kwan Yue Keng — from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).

The men, who had been representing the SDP on verification of healthcare subsidy of government polyclinics and public hospitals, were accused of acting in contempt of Parliament by fabricating data and presenting documents that contained false or untrue information during the Select Committee. 

Due to the "purported error" in a chart in their submissions, they were summoned to testify to the COP. 

During the COP, it was found that Dr Chee was "by far, the most culpable". He was guilty of fabricating data, committing perjury and wilfully giving false answers to cover up the fabrication, among other charges, said the committee report. 

Wong, Kunalen and Kwan were asked to lie on his behalf, notably Wong, who was found to have committed perjury. 

All four men were issued fines. Dr Chee was fined $25,000, Wong was fined $13,000, Kunalen was fined $8,000 and Kwan was fined $5,000. 

Another incident occured in 1986 and involved then-Leader of the House S Dhanabalan — who was also Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time — filing a complaint against then-MP, J B Jeyaretnam. 

Jeyaretnam was accused of abusing parliamentary privileges by making "unsubstantiated allegations of executive interference in the judiciary". 

He was also accused of having "maligned the judiciary by insinuating that they did not exercise their duties in accordance with their oath of office". 

After being found guilty, he was fined $1,000. Additionally, as an MP, he was referred to the committee another two times in 1986 for separate issues. 

melissateo@asiaone.com