SINGAPORE: Former Workers' Party (WP) cadre and former secretarial assistant to Ms Raeesah Khan, Ms Lohmango win Pei Ying, took the stand on Thursday (Oct 17) to testify against WP chief Pritam Singh.

Singh, 48, is on trial for lying before a Committee of Privileges (COP) about his intentions in interactions with Ms Khan, who had herself lied in parliament about accompanying a rape victim to a police station.

Ms Loh, who resigned from her 11-year involvement with WP in 2022, shared how she felt it was "convenient" for WP leaders to be putting the responsibility all on Ms Khan, how Singh himself should have stepped up and clarified the truth in parliament and that he had "every opportunity" to do so.

She felt the disciplinary panel set up to look into Ms Khan's lie was "performatory" to quell public and party anger, and reminded Singh about how he had made a similar mistake in parliament where he plagiarised a speech but had not faced similar consequences.

The disciplinary panel was made up of Singh, Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap - the same people who knew Ms Khan's anecdote was false a week after she delivered it on Aug 3, 2021, said Ms Loh.

She was against Ms Khan's resignation from the party, feeling that it would give the party and disciplinary panel "an opportunity to say she has shirked her responsibility from facing the consequences" and also of looking after her residents.

Ms Loh, who is the head and co-founder of the editorial studio Kontinentalist, was the second witness for the prosecution. She took the stand after Ms Khan underwent re-examination for about half an hour on Thursday morning.

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