Raeesah's account more credible than WP leaders': Report

Former Workers' Party (WP) MP Raeesah Khan must take full and sole responsibility for her initial lie in Parliament in August last year, said a parliamentary committee.

When Ms Khan repeated the lie last October, she had done so under the guidance of senior party leaders, the Committee of Privileges noted in a lengthy report released yesterday.

This "mitigating factor", among others, led to the committee recommending a smaller fine of $10,000 for her lie last October, compared with $25,000 for the original untruth.

The committee also concluded that Ms Khan's version of events from Aug 8, when she first came clean about her lie to three WP leaders, was "more credible" when set against the conduct of the trio - namely party chief Pritam Singh, chair Sylvia Lim and vice-chair Faisal Manap.

The committee, in its report, said Ms Khan was guilty of abusing parliamentary privilege.

In considering the appropriate penalties to recommend to Parliament, the committee took into account previous cases, such as those similarly involving false or unsubstantiated allegations in the House.

For instance, the Singapore Democratic Party's Dr Chee Soon Juan - though not an MP - was fined $25,000 in 1996 for fabricating data and committing perjury, among other misleading acts, while making representations as a member of the public to a select committee on healthcare subsidies in polyclinics and hospitals.

The committee noted, however, that this was a case of lying to Parliament rather than abuse of privilege. It said a precedent apt to its deliberations over Ms Khan involved former WP leader J.B. Jeyaretnam, who in 1987 was fined $1,000 for making unsubstantiated allegations, including over the supposed wrongful arrest and detention of one Lim Poh Huat.

Mr Jeyaretnam did not provide details on the allegation, which he repeated in Parliament a few days later while also falsely claiming he had made a police report on the matter.

The committee pointed out that when Ms Khan lied on Aug 3, only she was aware of the untruth.

While still liable for repeating the lie on Oct 4, the first-time MP was no longer solely responsible as from Aug 8, she was acting on the advice of senior WP leaders to bury and continue the untruth, said the committee.

"Her conduct and evidence show that if she had been advised on Aug 8 to come clean, she would have done so," it added.

The report highlighted that after her meeting with WP leaders that day, Ms Khan immediately sent a text message to her secretarial assistant Loh Pei Ying and another party member assisting her, Mr Yudhishthra Nathan, to say that she had been told to "take the information to the grave".

The two aides were due to meet Mr Singh in two days' time, without her, and would have found out if she was misreporting what happened at the Aug 8 meeting, the committee observed.

"In the committee's view, the contemporaneous message is a clear indicator that Ms Khan is telling the truth," the report read.

"When asked about the contemporaneous message, Mr Singh said that Ms Khan had mental health issues and may therefore not have told the truth to Ms Loh and Mr Nathan. The committee finds this suggestion from Mr Singh to be both untrue and regrettable."

The committee noted that after Aug 8, the three WP leaders had not discussed with Ms Khan anything to do with her lie.

"If there was a genuine desire to have this untruth clarified, there would have been at least some discussion taking place between the three senior WP leaders on what to make of the confession, what next steps to take, and at least some indication of a rough timeline," said the committee. "By their own admission, none of this was done."

The committee also noted that an e-mail Ms Khan sent the three WP leaders on Oct 7 thanking them for guiding her "without judgment" contradicted what Mr Singh had said about a discussion a few days earlier.

"If Mr Singh had told Ms Khan on Oct 3 to tell the truth, and if she had flagrantly disobeyed him, then she would not be thanking the three senior WP leaders for guiding her without judgment. Implicit in her e-mail is that she had followed their advice until then. She had followed her leaders' 'guidance', for her to continue with the untruth," said the report.

It noted that Ms Khan came clean on Nov 1 last year after being told to do so by Mr Singh and Ms Lim on Oct 12; and that her mental health had been "unfairly and publicly attacked, in particular, by Mr Singh".

The committee took these factors into account in making its recommendations.

"Ordinarily, repeating an untruth should carry a higher penalty," it said. "However, a lower amount has been recommended because of the mitigating circumstances."