Home Ground
A defining moment for the future of contested politics
The opposition must raise the bar to meet high standards of integrity. And the PAP must raise the bar to behave better and act fairly as the dominant party in a contested system.
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A lie told by a rookie opposition MP in Parliament has morphed over the past six months into a tale involving her party leaders, a parliamentary committee hearing spanning weeks, and, on Tuesday, an intense four-hour debate that saw the Prime Minister step in to deliver a rare, and vitally important, speech.
Ms Raeesah Khan has since apologised for her lie uttered on Aug 3 and for repeating it on Oct 4, when queried. She had made up an anecdote about accompanying a sexual assault victim to the police station, where officers had been insensitive. In fact, she had heard the account at a support group meeting, and had not received permission to share the story. On Nov 1, she confessed in Parliament that she had lied, and resigned from the Workers' Party (WP) and from her seat in Sengkang GRC on Nov 30.
