SINGAPORE – Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh has said he believes the court of public opinion can be bigger than any court in the world, and that the WP’s respectable performance at the May general election showed what the public thought of his role in the Raeesah Khan case.
Asked about being called a liar due to his handling of Ms Khan’s false anecdote in Parliament in 2021, Mr Singh said this was not something he had lost much sleep over because he was “in the business of politics”.
Mr Singh, who is Leader of the Opposition, fielded this and other questions in an episode of CNA’s The Assembly programme that aired on Nov 5.
The programme, which features a panel of neurodivergent individuals interviewing different guests in each episode, was recorded prior to
Mr Singh’s appeal on Nov 4
against his February conviction of lying under oath to a parliamentary committee. The verdict for the appeal has not been delivered.
On this issue, he said: “My political opponents will do whatever it takes to lower my esteem and the esteem of my party in the public eye. But ultimately, you answer to your conscience first, and if your conscience is clear, then people can throw whatever they want at you, and you will still be standing.”
“If there was something my conscience was not in agreement with, I don’t think I’ll be sitting here today, and I don’t think we would have done how we did in the last elections. We did pretty respectably,” he said.
“At the end of the day, the court of public opinion can be a bigger court than any court in the world,” he added. “And I think people have eyes, people can see what is happening, and you are thankful for the support that you get, no matter what people try and throw at you.”
