Singapore’s Pritam Singh trial: WP stalwart Low Thia Khiang reveals timeline gap in lie knowledge

Singapore opposition stalwart Low Thia Khiang has testified in court that he only learned two years later that his party’s leadership had known since August 2021 about a lie told by a former MP in parliament.

Low, 68, who helmed the Workers’ Party (WP) from 2001 to 2018, was called as the prosecution’s fourth witness on Wednesday in the trial of his party leader Pritam Singh.

Singh, 48, is embroiled in a controversy stemming from former WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lie to parliament in August 2021 about accompanying a rape victim to a police station. He faces two charges for giving false evidence in his testimony during parliamentary committee hearings held in December that year.

Both parties agree that Khan told Singh on August 7, 2021 that the incident she mentioned in parliament did not happen.

Low testified that he only found out in August last year that the party leaders had known about the lie since August 2021. He wondered why it had taken so long for Singh and the party leaders to reveal that Khan had lied in parliament.

Low is among the most respected opposition figures in the city state, having been an MP from 1991 to 2020, making him Singapore’s longest-serving opposition MP. He remains a member of the WP’s central executive committee.