Sylvia Lim says she didn't discuss with WP leaders Raeesah's lie, left it to Pritam

For months, Workers' Party (WP) chairman Sylvia Lim knew of Ms Raeesah Khan's lie in Parliament but did not discuss with fellow leaders a timeframe to address this matter as she had left WP chief Pritam Singh to handle it, Ms Lim told the Committee of Privileges.

This was because she believed Mr Singh knew Ms Khan best and was guiding her, and so she left it to him to follow up on this matter after Aug 8, when Ms Khan had first confessed her lie in Parliament to Ms Lim, Mr Singh and WP vice-chairman Faisal Manap.

Ms Lim said she did not discuss the lie with Mr Singh, Mr Faisal, or anyone else, nor whether it would be clarified in Parliament in September. Ms Khan did not attend that session due to a case of shingles.

"Basically, I left it to Pritam to follow up with her because he knows her best," she said.

She added: "Throughout her stint as a parliamentarian, I think he was the one that basically was guiding her and she would go to him with questions... and (he) knew her best."

During a hearing on Monday which lasted about three hours, Ms Lim told the committee she could not "fathom" the possibility that Mr Singh would have given Ms Khan the choice between telling the truth and lying again. It was for this reason that she did not clarify with Mr Singh what he and Ms Khan had discussed and agreed to, between Aug 8 and their meeting on Oct 12.

Ms Lim provided the committee with a copy of notes she had taken during the WP's disciplinary panel interview with Ms Khan on Nov 29.

It included Mr Singh's recalling he told her before the October Parliament session that it was her call on what to do, and he had asked Ms Khan if the need to tell the truth in Parliament had occurred to her.

Ms Khan replied this did occur to her, but she had not done so due to her guilt and past experience. She also thought the matter would not come up during the sitting.

The notes captured Mr Singh having asked Ms Khan "can't lie, right?" to which she agreed.

When asked for her views on what Mr Singh had said to Ms Khan during this interview, Ms Lim told the committee that he seemed to have said that it was for Ms Khan to decide what to do on Oct 4, if the issue arose in Parliament.

In another part of Ms Lim's evidence, she described how she could not conceive of Mr Singh asking Ms Khan to lie. She said: "I cannot fathom this possibility that Pritam would have given her the option to choose between telling the truth or continuing the lie."

In his evidence before the committee, Mr Singh said he told Ms Khan she had to take ownership and responsibility of the issue, and had an expectation that she would clarify the truth if it came up again in Parliament, but added that he had no plans to voluntarily raise the issue.

Ms Lim agreed with the committee that as an experienced politician, she immediately appreciated the gravity and seriousness of the matter on finding out about Ms Khan's Aug 8 untruth in Parliament.

But while the lie would have to be clarified, Ms Lim did not apply her mind, at that time, to the question of how and when it should be corrected, the special report added.

Ms Lim told the committee she did not recall any conversation between Mr Singh, Mr Faisal and herself on Aug 8 concerning Ms Khan's lie in Parliament, or the next steps that needed to be taken. Between then and October, there were also no concrete steps she knew of being taken to have Ms Khan go to Parliament to clarify the lie.

Ms Lim disagreed with Ms Khan's account that the opposition party's leaders had told her to take her lie "to the grave", which aligns with what Mr Singh said in his hearing last week. Mr Singh had told the committee last Friday that Ms Khan's recounting this was a "complete, utter fabrication".

An e-mail Mr Singh sent on Oct 1 to all WP MPs reminding them they have to be able to substantiate what they say in the House meant that he had "his eye on the matter" involving Ms Khan, she added. "I had my reasons for leaving the matter for Pritam to follow up on, so I did not myself speak to her on these matters, to confirm what had been done or not done," Ms Lim said.