Ms Raeesah Khan’s lies in Parliament resulted in her being referred to the Committee of Privileges, and subsequently her resignation from WP which effectively means she is no longer an MP.
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.
Just look at Sylvia Lim and the AHTC saga.
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.
The Workers’ Party approached GE2020 telling voters that they faced extinction. Fearing extinction of the opposition in Parliament, voters responded by giving them more votes and another GRC even, a newly formed GRC in Sengkang.
There is a segment of voters where honesty and integrity are not a priority. They love opposition more than they value honesty and integrity.
This is why they support anyone who is ‘opposition’ and this is why even Lim Tean is able to garner at least 30% of the votes despite having more than one bankruptcy applications filed against him. His client sued him for misappropriation of money awarded to the client. But is he ‘damaged’? Nah!
This is sadly the direction politics has taken in Singapore. 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.
This augurs well for the Opposition. It comes at the expense of Singapore.
[irp posts=”11743″ name=”Raeesah Khan resigns from Workers’ Party. Why resign now, asks Prof Daniel Goh.”]
