Panel told Raeesah may have lied in text due to dissociation

Ms Raeesah Khan possibly suffers from dissociation, which could be why she lied in her WhatsApp message to her aides that she was told by party leaders to "take the information to the grave", Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh said last Friday.

Giving evidence at the Committee of Privileges, Mr Singh said Ms Khan told the Workers' Party disciplinary panel about her supposed mental health condition on Nov 29.

"It was the first time I heard of it. I asked her what dissociation was. She said, 'It's when I talk without thinking,'" he said. "I asked her, 'Don't you think that's dangerous for an MP?' And she said 'yes'.

"It may be helpful for this committee to call for some psychiatric report or evaluation on Ms Khan."

Mr Singh said Ms Khan's account that he, WP chair Sylvia Lim and vice-chair Faisal Manap had told her on Aug 8 to continue with her lie - that she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to the police station - after she had confessed it to them "is a complete lie".

Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong had asked him to suggest reasons why Ms Khan would lie in her WhatsApp message to her two WP assistants.

It was then that Mr Singh said Ms Khan's self-confessed dissociation could be a relevant factor.

"Could (her confessed dissociation) be a lie? To me, it's possible. But if we are talking about culpability, and proportionality, I think it may be helpful (to mention this)."

Dissociation is a mental health condition where a person disconnects from his thoughts and feelings, and this can have effects on his day-to-day functioning. It can lead to emotional numbing, a feeling that one is a different person, and an altered sense of time.

One cause is past trauma, including sexual or physical assault.

Mr Tong pointed out that Mr Singh had earlier said that nothing in Ms Khan's general performance as an MP was out of the ordinary, calling Mr Singh's explanation and his suggestion that the committee evaluate Ms Khan's mental health "quite inappropriate".

"I'm not sure that the event that you mentioned on Nov 29 is basis for us to call for a psychiatric assessment of Ms Khan," Mr Tong said. "I think we know why you raised that suggestion."

Later, when Mr Tong once more asked Mr Singh what reason Ms Khan had to lie to her assistants - "people who she's close with and who're helping her" - Mr Singh said the episode had shown that Ms Khan has a habit of lying.

He then agreed with his own earlier characterisation of Ms Khan that "she may have a problem".

During the hearing, Mr Singh also raised the matter that neither of Ms Khan's two assistants - Ms Loh Pei Ying and Mr Yudhishthra Nathan - had told the Committee of Privileges that he had told them that he had instructed Ms Khan to keep lying.

"This is Ms Khan's recollection to them," he said.

Mr Singh said Ms Loh and Mr Nathan "had a skewed impression" of what he had told Ms Khan, likely because they were protective of her.