Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

The Committee of Privileges released another special report on Dec. 11 which summarises the oral evidence of Workers' Party (WP) Vice-Chair Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap.

Faisal was heard by the Committee on Dec. 9.

The Committee had previously interviewed former Sengkang GRC Member of Parliament Raeesah Khan who confessed to lying in Parliament back in August as well as her former secretarial assistant Loh Pei Ying, her former legislative assistant Lim Hang Ling, and WP member Yudhishthra Nathan.

In the hearing, Faisal was asked about the WhatsApp message that Raeesah sent to her assistants and cadre members, Loh Pei Ying and Yudhishthra Nathan.

Faisal: WP leaders did not ask Raeesah to take the lie to grave

Raeesah sent the message to Loh and Nathan on Aug. 8 soon after meeting Faisal, Secretary-General Pritam Singh and WP Chair Sylvia Lim.

During this meeting, Raeesah told the three WP leaders that she had lied in Parliament on Aug. 3.

After the meeting, Raeesah sent the following text message to Loh and Nathan, according to the first special report:

“Hey guys, I just met Pritam, Sylvia and Faisal. And we spoke about the Muslim issue and the police accusation. I told them what I told you guys, and they’ve agreed that the best thing to do is to take the information to the grave. They also suggested that I write a statement to send out this evening.”

In the message, Raeesah said that the leaders had told her to "take the information to the grave".

However, according to the second special report, Faisal disputed this.

He said it was not true that the trio asked Raeesah to take the lie in Parliament to the grave, nor that they had spoken to her about the police accusation.

Faisal said that they did not discuss what to do about the lie during the Aug. 8 meeting.

According to the report, Faisal said Raeesah was lying, "but he could not explain why she would do so".

Thought Aug. 8 meeting was about other issues raised in her Parliament statement

Faisal said that he attended the Aug. 8 meeting with the impression that the discussion would primarily be about issues related to the Muslim community, namely female genital cutting and polygamy, that Raeesah had raised in her Aug. 3 Parliament statement.

He had this impression because he had been discussing these issues both with Pritam and Raeesah following her parliamentary statement on Aug. 3.

He was not aware that Raeesah had spoken to Pritam in a prior meeting about how she had suffered a sexual assault.

He said that Raeesah broke down when she told them about the assault. The three of them (Pritam, Sylvia, and Faisal) tried to console and comfort Raeesah.

After Raeesah calmed down, Faisal proceeded to ask Raeesah about what she had said regarding female genital cutting and polygamy in her Aug. 3 statement.

Contrary to what Raeesah said, Faisal insisted that the three WP leaders did not discuss what to do about the lie as they were "overwhelmed" and that their main concern was Raeesah's well-being.

According to the report, Faisal said he understood that it would be hard to understand why the three of them did not react to Ms Khan’s confession that she had told an untruth in Parliament.

As a former counsellor, he told the Committee that he also asked if Raeesah was receiving treatment and suggested he could partner an asatizah to counsel her during the Aug. 8 meeting.

You can read the Committee of Privileges report here.

Related stories

Follow and listen to our podcast here

Top image via Gov.sg YouTube video screenshot