No further action against WP's Lim, Faisal: Indranee

SINGAPORE – No further action needs to be taken against Workers’ Party leaders Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap for lying to a parliamentary committee as the time limit for Parliament to impose penalties under the law has lapsed, said Leader of the House Indranee Rajah.

In a ministerial statement on July 7, she addressed the conduct of the two WP leaders in relation to former WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lying case, and explained why the House can no longer impose penalties on the duo under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act (PPIPA).

“Had the timelines been different, I would have proposed a different course of action,” said Indranee, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.

“This outcome has happened because even though this House was entitled to act on the Committee’s findings in 2021, it decided to give Ms Lim and Mr Faisal the benefit of the doubt for the time being,” she added.

Indranee also said that while the House can pass a motion to signal its disapproval of lying, this had already been done in January when Parliament declared WP leader Pritam Singh unsuitable as Leader of the Opposition.

Her ministerial statement effectively brings the longstanding saga to a close in Parliament.

It comes one week after the WP closed a chapter on the issue during its internal elections and meeting on June 28, when party cadres voted for Singh to remain as their leader despite his conviction over the matter.

Lim and Faisal were both MPs in Aljunied GRC when they were implicated in a lie involving former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan.

Khan had made up an anecdote about the police in her speech in Parliament in 2021, and Lim, Faisal and Singh were found to have lied to Parliament’s Committee of Privileges investigating the issue.

The committee found that Singh had asked Khan to “take her lie to the grave” during a meeting on Aug 8, 2021.

While Lim and Faisal were at the meeting, they denied that the matter was discussed.

As Singh’s conduct was deemed the most serious, he was referred by Parliament to the public prosecutor, for the matter to be independently investigated and for him to defend himself with the benefit of legal representation, said Indranee.

Lim and Faisal were found to have played a “subsidiary” role and had also been “somewhat helpful to the committee, albeit in a limited way”, she added.

As such, Parliament had opted to wait for Singh’s criminal proceedings to be completed before dealing with Lim and Faisal, to be fair to the duo, she said.

Singh was eventually convicted by the District Court in February 2025, but appealed. His conviction was upheld by the High Court in December 2025.

Indranee said the court’s findings in Singh’s case – where he was convicted of lying to Parliament – confirmed the findings of the committee that Lim and Faisal had lied.

She added that she would ordinarily initiate a process under the PPIPA to deal with such “dishonourable conduct and a serious contempt of Parliament”.

In most cases, offences under the PPIPA can be dealt with fairly quickly and in the same session of Parliament, she noted.

“Occasionally, the offence may occur in one session of Parliament but for whatever reason Parliament may not be able to deal with it immediately, and it is dealt with in a subsequent session of Parliament. However, in the interests of finality, there are constraints on this,” she said.

Under Section 22 of the PPIPA, Parliament has the power to punish offences which have been committed in either the preceding session or the last session of the preceding Parliament.

This means that in the current 15th Parliament, which began in September 2025, the House can only deal with offences committed either in the current session, or during the 2nd session of the 14th Parliament.

A session of Parliament is the period between the opening of Parliament and when it prorogues for a mid-term break, or when it is dissolved. There can be more than one session in a term of Parliament.

Indranee said that by the time Singh’s case had concluded, the 14th Parliament had been dissolved and the 15th Parliament had begun after the 2025 General Election.

As Lim and Faisal’s lie took place during the first session of the 14th Parliament, the 15th Parliament can no longer impose any penalties under the PPIPA, she added.

This does not mean Parliament is without recourse, she said, noting that it can pass a motion to express regret at the conduct of Lim and Faisal.

However, the House had already signalled its clear disapproval of lying to Parliament or its committees when it passed a motion declaring Singh unsuitable as Leader of the Opposition in January, said Indranee.

“Even though the Committee’s findings have now been effectively confirmed by the High Court judgment, the law, in this case the time bar provisions of PPIPA, must be observed,” she said.

“Unless any Member objects, we can now bring this matter to a close.”

Rising to make a clarification, Lim said she was not objecting to the ministerial statement.

She added that she had already given her response to the issues raised during the January motion.

In January, Lim had said the references to her in Singh’s appeal judgment were based on the prosecution’s evidence, and that she had no opportunity to present her side in court as she was not called as a witness.

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