Given how many embarrassing problems keep piling on the man, I would ordinarily begin to exhibit pity for him (even as I disagree with his politics). I find it really difficult to sympathise, however, because they are all self-inflicted.
On the very same day Pritam Singh had to turn up in court to appeal his conviction for lying under oath to the COP, he also had to rush to the parliament and publicly admit that the claim he made just two weeks ago about Noor Deros "gatecrashing" the meeting of WP's Malay MPs with local Islamic leaders in April was, in fact, false.
As it turns out, the controversial Islamic teacher, who is not permitted to preach in Singapore, was telling the truth about being invited to the gathering.
The invitation came from the ustaz who helped to organise the event on behalf of WP's very own Faisal Manap – and informed him of Noor Deros' presence an hour before it took place six months ago.
Pritam Singh explained that the preacher in question only reminded Mr Faisal about the fact again on October 21st – in both cases via WhatsApp.
Now, it is, of course, perfectly plausible that in the rush of the campaign WP's vice-chairman had not read the message sent to him in April or hadn't fully comprehended who it was about, and later completely forgot about it.
What does beg a question, however, is why hadn't the party made a thorough check before the media interview in April, when it alleged that nobody knew Noor Deros would be joining, nor in October, when Pritam Singh accused him of "gatecrashing" the meeting.
I find it hard to imagine that nobody in the WP leadership had sought to clarify how he was allowed to attend before they issued a public statement to the press six days after the meeting, when they claimed "there was no indication" that he was to be there.
It seems that the logical response when faced with accusations of trying to strike a political bargain with religious leaders before the election – that Noor Deros bragged about – would be to first establish how the controversial person making these claims got in the door at all.
All it required was to ask the organiser of the meeting about his invitations.
Are we to believe that not one person from the party did that when pressed by the PAP and the media?
Obviously, if such an inquiry had been made the ustaz responsible would have immediately reminded them that he both invited Noor Deros and notified Faisal of it right before the event (as he had).
I'm sorry, but it's pretty comical for the leader of the party to appear in the parliament six months later and claim that he didn't know anything when he was making unequivocal statements, while his vice-chairman missed the WhatsApp message, and somehow not a single person in the leadership thought to ask the actual organisers of the meeting about who invited Noor Deros to it.
What's more, it seems to be even more suspect given WP's problems with Raeesah Khan and the fallout from her case which has sent Pritam to court. Seriously? Have they not learned anything?
Either somebody lied again or they should just quit politics and pursue their real calling: comedy.
