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Singapore Opposition Chiefs Get Summons as Lying Scandal Deepens

Singapore Opposition Chiefs Get Summons as Lying Scandal Deepens

A Singapore parliamentary committee stacked with ruling party lawmakers has issued a summons to the top leaders of the main opposition to provide documents next week connected to a lying scandal involving a former member of parliament.

The committee said that over the past week the opposition Workers’ Party leadership had failed to produce documents such as internal correspondence that would be relevant for its investigation into former lawmaker Raeesah Khan who lied in parliament about a sexual assault case. 

Failing to produce those documents is an offense and the three summoned opposition lawmakers could be held in contempt of parliament, which could lead to fines, or in the worst-case scenario -- suspension or imprisonment. That would be a further blow for the party that made historic gains in last year’s general elections and had cast itself as a check on the ruling People’s Action Party.

Singapore Opposition Chiefs Get Summons as Lying Scandal Deepens

Khan, who resigned in early December after admitting she manufactured some of the details of the case, had testified before the committee that the Workers’ Party chief and opposition leader Pritam Singh, along with two other senior party members, told her to maintain the lie. The party leadership has denied this allegation.

The scandal could create an internal split within the opposition party at a time when the PAP has come under some criticism for its handling of the pandemic. While the PAP held onto power in the 2020 elections, a recent opinion survey showed that Singaporeans’ trust in their government leadership fell as Covid-19 cases soared in a wave earlier this year. 

The committee, made up mostly of PAP government ministers, have posted recordings of the hearings in which the exchanges between the opposition and ruling party lawmakers have been tense. On online discussion forums, Singaporeans have been largely divided about what has transpired. 

Singapore Opposition Chiefs Get Summons as Lying Scandal Deepens

The parliamentary privileges committee has largely focused on Khan’s allegations and called up the three opposition leaders for their accounts of what transpired. The committee wants the correspondence between the Workers’ Party leaders during a disciplinary panel hearing as well the details from a press conference held after Khan resigned, which it says has not been given despite requests to do so, the Straits Times reported

The committee said in its latest report that proceedings have mostly concluded and the findings and recommendations will be presented in parliament in due course. 

Breaches of parliamentary privilege are rare in Singapore. In 1986, a Workers’ Party lawmaker J.B. Jeyaretnam was found guilty of abuse of parliamentary privilege and contempt by a committee and fined S$26,000 ($19,028). 

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