Raeesah Khan's lies: What COP says WP should have done if it was truthful

The Committee of Privileges (COP) released a report of their findings and recommendations on Thursday (Feb 10), following an inquiry into former Sengkang MP Raeesah Khan, who admitted she had lied in Parliament.

In the report, the COP said that Workers' Party (WP) leaders Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap would have taken certain steps if they indeed wanted the truth to be clarified as they claimed. 

According to the committee, these steps would include:

- Preparing the clarification that Khan was going to make and reviewing the draft as per the party's standard practice; 

- Informing WP's Central Executive Committee (CEC) about the clarification that was going to be made; 

- Ensuring Khan reveals to her family her sexual assault so that she can proceed to admit to her lie in Parliament

Among other things, the absence of such steps led the committee to conclude that the WP leadership had encouraged Khan to maintain her lie.

During a parliamentary debate about empowering women on Aug 3 last year, Khan claimed that she had accompanied a victim of sexual assault to a police station and alleged that the police had mishandled the case. 

Five days later, Khan confessed to the WP leaders that she had lied in Parliament. However, she only came clean about the lie during a sitting on Nov 1 last year.

In her speech that day, she apologised and clarified that she was "not present" at the police station but had shared another victim's account from a support group for sexual assault survivors.

Khan also revealed that she was sexually assaulted at the age of 18, while she was studying overseas. 

On Nov 30 last year, she resigned from WP and from her position as MP for Sengkang GRC. 

claudiatan@asiaone.com