Raeesah's lies and the failure of the Leader of the Opposition

The Leader of the Opposition is not just a fanciful title. It is an official appointment. But the Leader of the Opposition allowed the lie to persist in Parliament despite having full knowledge of it one week after it happened. He abdicated his responsibility when he told Raeesah that any clarifications was hers to make as an elected MP. He was content to let police spend hundreds of hours on a non-existent case while he gave time to Raeesah to 'close the loop'.

He set up a farcical disciplinary panel to look into Raeesah's lies when all the members of the panel had full knowledge of the lies very early on and there was nothing to investigate.



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Damaged reputation? A damage reputation is to WP's advantage

The Workers' Party may have suffered a damaged reputation but in terms of political fortunes, they have nothing to fear. In fact, a damaged reputation puts them in an advantage if history is any indication. The more damage their reputation, the more their supporters will vote for them.

There is a segment of voters where honesty and integrity are not a priority. This is sadly the direction politics has taken in Singapore. They will support anyone who is 'opposition'

Sylvia Lim lied to Parliament too. She lied about making transfers to sinking fund when in fact, she did not. She lied to her own town councillors. She also lied in Court. She has the distinction of being called a liar by two high court judges in two different trials. Justice Quentin Loh used the Latin phrase 'Suppressio veri, Suggestio falsi' to describe her. The phrase means 'suppressing the truth to give the impression of something that is false'. The testimony of How Weng Fan was against here.

Despite all her lies, where is Sylvia Lim today? She is still the Chairman of Workers' Party enjoying top leadership. More pertinently, she is still an MP of Aljunied GRC. In the last election, the WP team won Aljunied GRC with a higher share of votes despite the high court findings.

So WP has nothing to worry about. The more damaged their reputation, they more easily they will win votes in the next election because there are voters who fear their extinction more than they fear losing the fundamentals of integrity and honesty that has given them good lives. 



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Questions remain as Raeesah Khan resigns from Workers' Party

When did the WP leadership know about the lies? What did they know about the lies? What did they do with this knowledge? "It is incomprehensible that nobody else knew anything before Raeesah Khan made the admission in Parliament," said Calvin.

Former NCMP and WP cadre, Daniel Goh had noted that all speeches were shared and vetted by the WP MPs before they were delivered in Parliament. Prof Goh was of the opinion that the leadership has to bear some responsibility for this saga. Is Ms Khan thrown under the bus to save WP?



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People expect MPs and political leaders to be above reproach, scrupulously truthful in what they say: Lee Hsien Loong

"The PAP’s rigour sets the tone for Singapore politics. Voters have to apply these same high standards of integrity and honesty to every group and every person who participates in politics, whichever side they may be on. Otherwise, we will be signalling we are prepared to lower standards, and this will eventually drag our system down," said PM Lee at the PAP Convention 2021 on 28 November.



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Omicron likely to be more widespread than just South Africa, says Ho Ching

One Belgian case, for example, visited Egypt and Turkey, and was not anywhere near southern Africa. What do we do? Don't panic. Vaccinate.

Israel became the first country to ban all international travellers - for 14 days. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked said, "Our working hypotheses are that the variant is already in nearly every country and that the vaccine is effective, although we don't yet know to what degree."



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Identity politics: we must not to allow differences to become permanent divides that separate us, says Lawrence Wong

There are groups with legitimate concerns in Singapore. "The challenge is to acknowledge and do our best to address the legitimate concerns of every “tribe”, without allowing our politics to be based exclusively on identities or tribal allegiances."

We may not find the perfect solution but no group will be unheard, ignored or excluded. In reality, all of us have multiple identities. Racial identity. Religious identity and many more. Being a Singaporean should never mean having to give up any of our other identities. But we are first and foremost Singaporeans.

'If we uphold this idea – that being Singaporean is a matter of conviction and choice, and that it takes priority over our other identities and affiliations – that would give all of us one important commonality around which to build understanding and trust; to negotiate our differences and find common ground on difficult issues; and then we can continually look for ways to move forward together."



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