When will it be safe to support the Workers' Party again?

On 10 February 2022, the Committee of Privileges presented its official report on Ms Raeesah's Khan's lies to the Singapore Parliament.

Here are some of the salient points from the report.

For all intents and purposes, the fat lady has sung

Ms Khan lied to Parliament over 3 months and did so under guidance from her party leaders, chiefly Mr Pritam Singh (105).

Mr Pritam Singh lied to the Committee. He lied about the content of the conversations he had with Raeesah Khan (55.1). He lied about the party's timeline for Raeesah Khan to tell the truth (55.2). He tried to discredit Raeesah Khan by painting her as mentally unstable or unsound (105). His lies were exposed by evidence Ms Sylvia Lim submitted to the committee and notes she took for the Workers' Party disciplinary hearing of Raeesah Khan (142).

This was not even close to a his word against her word case (201). Khan had plenty of verifiable, independent and contemporaneous evidence supporting her side of the story. Singh, not so much and in fact none.

Accordingly, the Committee will recommend a fine for Khan and in addition, to recommend Singh to the Public Prosecutor to consider criminal proceedings for perjury, i.e. lying to the committee under oath. It appears that his automatic parliamentary immunity for giving evidence to the committee has been waived, rescinded, cancelled because he lied so many times to the committee. Any recommendations for Singh as the "key orchestrator" of Khan's lies (227) will be deferred till the Public Prosecutor is done with Singh.

Pritam Singh, the WP IB, and their die-hard supporters may opt to launch Operation Save Pritam 2.0 and fight it out in Parliament, in the courts, and continue to politicise and discredit the work of the Committee of Privileges. But what should rational voters do?

What does the WP need to fix?

Despite picking off one constituency from the ruling party every other election, it appears that the Workers' Party has expanded too fast in the run-up to 2020 and is in fact overextended. Such overextension has led to existing weaknesses in the party, its MPs, and its leadership to be shown up.

Failure of integrity. In its rush to expand, the WP promoted candidates with integrity issues. This led to Raeesah Khan fabricating lies in Parliament in an attempt to discredit and defame the police force.

Failure of judgement. The newly appointed "Leader of the Opposition", Pritam Singh, exercised poor judgement in his handling of Raeesah Khan. He failed to get her to tell the truth as early as possible. He and his party co-leaders failed to draw up a plan for her to tell the truth.

Unaccountable leaders. Jamus Lim told the Committee of Privileges that if the WP senior leadership had instructed Ms Khan to take her lie "to the grave”, then their suppression of these facts and of their own involvement, would have been material information that had to be disclosed to the Disciplinary Committee hearing (93). Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, and Faisal Manap did supress these facts and hid them from the CEC as well as WP cadres until the Committee's proceedings begun. Pritam, Sylvia, and Faisal failed their party. The testimonies from Jamus Lim and Raeesah's aides show how much they trusted Singh and were reluctant to question or push him. WP leadership ran away with a blank cheque from their members. You know, the same blank check that all opposition parties say every election that voters shouldn't hand over to a ruling party...

And why should voters owe the Workers' Party a blank cheque?

The Workers' Party had previously championed a "First World Parliament", yet its actions today indicate that its senior leadership cannot even be checked by its own members, cadres, or CEC.

Today's Workers' Party is not the opposition that Singapore deserves, and will certainly not grow into a ruling party that Singapore needs if voters reward the party for its failures.

What action should WP take to regain the trust of voters?

Apologise in Parliament. Having presented its report to Parliament, there will be a motion to enact the recommendations by the Committee of Privileges in the coming days. Instead of treating this as a political football match, WP's leadership should acknowlege the wrongdoings of Khan and itself, and apologise.

Disciplinary committee for Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, and Faisal Manap. We note that the trio were happy to subject Raeesah Khan to a disciplinary committee once the Committee of Privilege was convened.

We have some wise words from Mr Chiam See Tong on 3 November 1995 in Parliament: "To me, opposition means that we have to be honourable; we must be honest, and not dishonest; to me, the opposition must be truthful; and not be liars and cheats; above all, in the opposition, we must be good patriotic Singaporeans." Hence,

New, honourable leaders elected. Having lied under oath to a parliamentary committee, Messrs Singh, Lim, and Faisal should step down from WP leadership.

No more woke candidates. The Woke Ms Khan consistently sought as a candidate and a member of parliament to divide Singapore society, to demonise and alienate Singaporeans from one another. Pritam Singh and the leadership made the mistake of pushing her for populist appeal, and voters shouldn't tolerate another identical failing from the party.

Abandon victim/bully narrative. The WP's crisis is entirely self-inflicted, and the more Pritam Singh, the WP IB, and diehard WP supporters deny all responsibility and accountability in the face of evidence and findings, the more unelectable it becomes.

Political scientists who have studied the progress of nations for centuries tell us that the strongest nations are democracies with a two-party or multiparty system. It is perhaps an accident of history that WP is seen by many as the preferred opposition party of Singapore. It is however not a mandate of heaven. If and when the PAP falls, Singaporeans will look for a suitable ruling party. If and when the WP fails as an opposition party, Singaporeans will look for a suitable opposition. Singapore will continue to benefit no matter what. Nature, like politics, abhors a vacuum.

NB: Non functional links in this post have been restored on 16 February 2022. We apologise for the error.