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Much ink has been spilled over the case of former Workers' Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) Raeesah Khan after she admitted to lying in parliament in November 2021.

Since then, many of the issues have been resolved, with Raeesah's apology and resignation, followed by the Committee of Privileges (COP) proceedings, which culminated in a recommended sanction of S$35,000 for the ex-MP.

But there are still some outstanding matters, including the referral of Leader of Opposition and WP's Secretary-General Pritam Singh and party vice-chair Faisal Manap to the public prosecutor on the COP's recommendation.

Another unresolved matter — this time, within WP itself — has surfaced.

According to a Facebook post by WP cadre member Daniel Goh on Sep. 3, WP's leadership has convened a disciplinary committee to look into some of Goh's Facebook posts from 2021, regarding how WP leaders handled "the Raeesah Khan matter in Parliament".

Goh was called up for interview with WP disciplinary committee

In his post, the former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament quoted from what appears to be a message to him from the committee, explaining why he had been called.

The quoted message seeks to hear "the reasons and rationale" behind Goh's public statements, saying that they revealed the "inner workings" of the Parliamentary caucus of WP MPs and allowed the party's political opponents to have "an inside understanding of how the WP operates".

It also said that Goh's Facebook posts "had cast a cloud over the character of the leadership of the WP.”

Mothership reached out to WP for a statement on Sep. 3, but the party declined to comment.

Goh declines to attend interview

Goh said he was called up for an interview with the committee but he has declined to attend as he feels he has already been clear about why he made those posts.

In his post on Sep. 3, Goh added that his Facebook posts were based on public information.

"The party leadership had not made any special communications with party members on the Raeesah Khan matter. I did not receive any additional information as a cadre member. The party leadership only came forward with more information on their handling of the matter after my posts," Goh added in his post.

Goh said he had asked questions "as a concerned citizen and as a party member" who believes that "public accountability and integrity are non-negotiable values demanded of our political leaders", and he was wiling to pay the price that asking those questions might have.

"In issues of grave public interest, questions must be asked about the inner workings of any organisation," he wrote.

He also took issue with the wording of the message he quoted.

"I do not understand what is meant by 'cast a cloud over the character of the leadership of the WP'," he wrote, saying that such phrasing "seems to suggest" that it was his questions that caused people to lose trust in WP leaders, rather than the leaders' actions and responses.

In writing this post, Goh also wants the WP leaders to "make public the grounds of their decision and explain any disciplinary sanctions they would impose on [him]".

What were Goh's posts about?

Goh opined in November 2021 that WP leadership should take some responsibility for allowing Raeesah's initial untruth to go uncorrected for several months.

He wrote:

"The statement was not made on impulse. In my experience, speeches were shared and reviewed among MPs and we might disagree and debate, but we would make corrections or drop things entirely according to the collective consensus. If a mistake was made, we would immediately move to rectify it."

Then, in a statement on Dec. 1, 2021 Goh pointed out that "many inconvenient questions for the Workers' Party leadership remained unanswered" and posed some questions about the timing of Raeesah's resignation.

Responding to queries from Mothership back then, Goh said, "I have every right as a citizen to speak my views."

He added that it was "in line with party values".

The next day, WP said it would investigate Goh's comments, with party chief Pritam Singh saying that "cadre members don’t usually operate in the way Mr Goh did" and calling it "an internal party matter that we will look into."

Top image via WP  and Daniel Goh on Facebook