WP chief Pritam Singh testified on Friday before a committee investigating a lie made in Parliament by Ms Raeesah Khan. The 9-hour hearing saw many testy exchanges between the Leader of the Opposition and Minister Edwin Tong. Read more: [ Ссылка ]
WHY THE WP HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE
The WP held a press conference on Dec 2, two days after Ms Khan resigned on Nov 30. This was the first time the public got to know that party leaders knew about Ms Khan's lie back in August.
Mr Singh said the press conference was organised to answer relevant questions that were going around.
"They were going around because your Nov 1 statement was less than open," said Mr Tong, referring to Mr Singh's Facebook post in the wake of Ms Khan's admission.
The post said Ms Khan should not have lied in the House, and that an MP's freedom of speech does not extend to communicating untruthful accounts. It did not mention that Ms Khan had confessed about the untruth to him, party chairman Sylvia Lim and vice-chairman Faisal Manap on Aug 8.
Disagreeing, Mr Singh said: "It's a nice attempt for you to question what we put in our press statements… it's an incorrect view, there was nothing to hide and this idea of protecting myself, my reputation - sorry, this is not what I entered politics for."
Mr Tong replied: "You may say that, Mr. Singh, but you have not given us one credible reason why…"
"Not to you," Mr Singh interjected.
Mr Tong continued: "This material fact of your knowledge of the falsehood three months before it was disclosed in Parliament - why is that not in the statement?
"Well, the only logical inference is that you wanted to distance yourself from the lie that Ms Khan had told and the fact that you knew about it, and chose to do nothing about it… So the reality, Mr. Singh, is that you chose to take this out, because you knew that it would put you in a bit of a pickle."
Mr Singh said this was "completely incorrect".
"But I must say, a quite imaginative conclusion," he added.
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