Raeesah Khan contemplated to resign in August, felt she'd be 'liability to the party': Faisal Manap

While Raeesah Khan had resigned from the Workers' Party (WP) on Nov 30, she was already contemplating doing so in August, according to WP vice-chair Faisal Manap.

This revelation was made in Faisal's testimony to Parliament's Committee of Privileges that was released on Saturday (Dec 11).

Describing Khan's "mental state" before the Aug 8 meeting, where she first confessed to party leaders about lying in Parliament, Faisal said in his testimony on Thursday: "She did mention to us (WP chief Pritam Singh, chair Sylvia Lim and Faisal) that she was contemplating to resign as an MP.

"She felt she was a liability to the party because of the speech about FGC (female genital cutting) and polygamy."

On Aug 3, WP tabled a motion on empowering women. Khan, then an MP at Sengkang GRC, delivered a speech to Parliament which focused on four main areas: sexual violence, FGC, polygamy and the tudung.

It was during the same speech that Khan claimed that she accompanied a victim of sexual assault to a police station and also alleged that the police mishandled the case.

That proved to be a lie when on Nov 1, Khan admitted to Parliament that she "was not present" at the police station as she had earlier claimed.

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But according to the Committee of Privileges' report, Faisal said that when he attended the Aug 8 meeting, he was under the impression that the discussion would primarily be about the FGC and polygamy issue.

The report added that Faisal, along with Singh and Lim, were "taken aback" by what Khan shared, revealing to them she was sexually assaulted in Australia as an 18-year-old student.

But they held no anger against her for lying.

Contrasting with what Khan had told the committee, Faisal said that Singh did not indicate then that she should admit her lie to the Committee of Privileges.

The report also noted that Faisal told Khan to put out a Facebook statement later that day about her speech on FGC and polygamy, which had caused unhappiness among the Muslim community.

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chingshijie@asiaone.com