Indranee Rajah: No further action needed on WP's Sylvia Lim, Faisal Manap's COP conduct, given time bar

Parliament will not take further action regarding the conduct of Workers' Party’s Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap in relation to the Committee of Privilege’s findings for the Raeesah Khan case.

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah delivered a ministerial statement in parliament on Jul. 7 to explain that this is because their conduct had taken place in the 14th Parliament, but the 15th Parliament had begun after the 2025 General Election.

Background

Earlier in January 2026, a motion was filed on WP chief Pritam Singh's suitability to continue as the Leader of the Opposition.

Indranee noted in the motion that the court judgments finding Singh guilty of lying to the COP "have implications for both Ms Lim and Mr Faisal".

She also noted then that the matter would be considered separately.

During the Jul. 7's ministerial statement, Indranee noted that a key issue in the COP inquiry was what was said at the meeting of Aug. 8, 2021, between Khan and the three senior WP leaders: Singh, Lim and Faisal.

All three WP leaders had denied that Khan was told to suppress the fact that she had told an untruth in parliament and that she should “take it to the grave”.

However, the court has "expressly and conclusively found" that at the Aug. 8 2021 meeting – at which all three WP leaders were present – Khan’s untruth was discussed and Singh had lied when he denied that he told Khan to “take it to the grave”.

"The court’s findings directly contradict Lim’s and Faisal’s evidence. It follows logically from the court findings that their evidence to the Committee was not true," Indranee said.

Timeline lapsed

In light of the court's judgement, Indranee said the "unresolved issue" of what to do with Lim and Faisal's case has to be dealt with.

She explained that in principle, if someone gave untrue evidence to a Committee of Parliament and did so knowingly or intentionally, this would be "dishonourable conduct" and a serious contempt of Parliament and would be dealt with under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act 1962 (PPIP).

While she would have initiated the PPIPA process ordinarily, the timeline in which the conduct had happened did not meet the timeline criteria for which the process could be initiated.

Under Section 22 of the PPIPA, parliament has the power to punish offences which have been committed in either the preceding session or the last session of the preceding parliament.

However, parliament is now in its first session of the 15th Parliament.

The relevant conduct of Lim and Faisal took place in 2021, during the 1st session of the 14th Parliament and Singh was convicted by the court during the second session of the 14th Parliament.

As such, it is no longer open to the 15th Parliament to impose any penalties in respect of Lim's and Faisal's conduct under the PPIPA, Indranee said.

"This does not mean that parliament is without recourse. The House could, if it wished, pass a motion to express regret at such conduct.  Such a motion would serve to signal Parliament’s disapproval, as it did in Singh’s case in January this year," she highlighted.

However, they had already signalled their clear disapproval of lying to parliament or its committees in the January motion, she added.

"Given the very specific circumstances of this case, it is my view that no further action need be taken by this House in relation to the committee’s finding regarding Lim and Faisal," she said.

She added that she would have proposed a different course of action under different timelines, but their decision to give Lim and Faisal the "benefit of the doubt" in 2021, instead of acting on the committee's findings, led to this outcome.