I'm quite perplexed as to why Pritam Singh would assume the position of arbiter over the government / PAP's handling of controversies surrounding its members, given what his party – and he himself – have been found to have done over the past few years.
He even compared the time Lee Hsien Loong had given Tan Chuan-jin and his mistress to sort their affair out to how he mishandled Raeesah Khan's lies in the parliament.
But only one of those acts was an actual breach of the law – the abuse of parliamentary privilege to peddle lies in the chamber (to make it even more heinous it was was levelled against the national police force).
However controversial, extramarital affairs are not illegal and are a political problem only due to appearances, little else.
As I wrote several times before, they are completely private in nature and do not affect professional performance of MPs or ministers. But because they do affect their image, they often lead to their resignation, once the matter becomes public.
I have no idea how anybody could compare this to a sworn member of parliament using their privileged position to spread lies about SPF – and how Workers' Party leadership dealt with it once it learned the allegations were not true.
Smoking gun
Let's not forget that we have a tangible piece of evidence suggesting that WP leaders wanted to keep the lie secret – the WhatsApp message Raeesah sent to her aides immediately after the meeting in August:
“Hey guys, I just met Pritam, Sylvia and Faisal. And we spoke about the Muslim issue and the police accusation. I told them what I told you guys, and they’ve agreed that the best thing to do is to take the information to the grave.”
This message is authentic and dated to Aug. 8, and it's exceedingly unlikely that she made it up at that point in time to somehow create false piece of evidence against her own party's leaders, as if they instructed her to do something completely different.
This is further corroborated by the fact of their inactivity in the following months, until SPF started demanding details, what forced WP to put up a show and feed Raeesah to the wolves.
Seeing Pritam publicly stating that they wanted to give her more time due to her past sexual assault experience, that she was expected to have shared with her parents, seems not only disingenuous but rather nauseating considering the circumstanced we already know about.
Mr Singh, do you seriously want to go down this path?
Trying to present yourself as a caring leader, when in reality all actual evidence we have points to your attempts at hushing up the issue until it was no longer possible?
To be honest, given that he continues to make these statements in the parliament, he may actually have committed another violation of parliamentary privilege himself.
Does he seriously expect any rational person to believe his story after all we know about the "grave" and telling Raeesah it's her "call" to deal with the lie?
What I find alarming is that he clearly has no qualms about going all-in on this narrative.
This is a man, let's not forget, who leads a party which has already lost court cases about mismanaging public funds in AHTC, proving their negligence in handling public funds.
But despite these verdicts, his people have not recused themselves at any point from running the town council and continue to draw full salaries – despite the fact that it's this activity that the lawsuit is about.
I understand they want to – and have the right to – exhaust all avenues of appeal, but how can he lecture the government about being "selective" in its standards, when his party has never acknowledged any wrongdoing regardless of the evidence and severity of the allegations against it?
And has never felt the need to distance itself from managing public money after allegations brought against it by independent auditors?
A PAP minister has just been named suspect in a possible bribery case and ended up being arrested, had his salary cut by about 90% and is suspended from all activities pending the outcome of the investigation and possible trial.
Technically it was not necessary to do so, but I doubt anybody would want someone charged with corruption running any ministry.
So why is it that people sued by their own TC for mismanaging its money (following an audit), including overpaying for services rendered by their buddies and party supporters, remain in charge as if nothing had happened?
Who is really "selective" here, Mr. Singh?
