Singapore Workers’ Party member says party looking into his Facebook posts on Raeesah Khan saga

SINGAPORE, Sept 5 — Workers’ Party (WP) cadre member Daniel Goh said on Saturday (Sept 3) that the party has set up a disciplinary committee to look into his Facebook posts on the Raeesah Khan saga, but he has declined to be interviewed by the committee.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Associate Professor Goh claimed that WP said the committee wanted to interview him as his posts had allowed WP’s “political opponents” to have an inside understanding of how the party operates, and had “cast a cloud” on the character of the leadership of the party.

The former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (MP), who stepped down from his appointments in WP’s central executive committee in 2020, has made several Facebook posts about how the party has handled Ms Raeesah’s admission on Nov 1 last year that she had lied in Parliament.

She had claimed in a parliamentary speech in August that she had accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station, where the latter was purportedly treated insensitively.

Ms Raeesah later admitted that she had not accompanied the victim to the police station, and that she had merely heard about the alleged account at a women’s support group that she supposedly attended.

A day after Ms Raeesah resigned from the party and as an MP in November last year, Assoc Prof Goh said on Facebook that “many inconvenient questions for the WP leadership remained unanswered”.

“In politics, these can become a sticky ugly scent eroding trust,” he wrote.

In a separate Facebook post in November, Assoc Prof Goh also urged the party’s disciplinary panel — which was tasked to look into Ms Raeesah’s admission of lying — not to “throw her under the bus”.

Instead, he said that the party’s leadership should take some responsibility for “allowing this transgression to happen and persist over several months”.

WP had said last year that it would look into the actions of Assoc Prof Goh, who is a cadre member with the party.

He said on Saturday that he has been called up by the disciplinary committee for an interview.

Apparently quoting WP in his post, he said that the committee wants to “hear the reasons and rationale” behind his statements as: “1. Your posts had revealed the inner workings of the Parliamentary caucus of the WP Members of Parliament, and allowed our political opponents to have an inside understanding of how the WP operates; 2. Your posts had cast a cloud over the character of the leadership of the WP”.

However, he declined the interview as he has “nothing more to say” about his posts.

Assoc Prof Goh gave several reasons for this:

• He has not been associated with party matters since stepping down and he said that his posts consisted “questions based on public information”. He added that WP has not made any special communications with party members on the Raeesah Khan matter, and that he did not receive any such information as a cadre member. “The party leadership only came forward with more information on their handling of the matter after my posts,” he said.

• He had asked those questions as a “concerned citizen and as a party member who believes that public accountability and integrity are non-negotiable values demanded of our political leaders”. “In issues of grave public interest, questions must be asked about the inner workings of any organisation,” he said. “If asking those questions carry a price, I am willing to pay it, and count it inexpensive.”

• He added that he disagreed with how WP sees the Government or any political party as “our political opponents”. He also does not understand what is meant by “cast a cloud over the character of the leadership of the WP”. “It seems to suggest that my questions, rather than the leaders’ actions and responses, had caused people to lose their trust in the WP leaders,” he said.

Assoc Prof Goh added that he has no intention of participating in party matters, including the Cadre Members’ Conference to be held in a few months’ time to elect the party leaders.

“I spent nearly 10 years working alongside many colleagues, building WP up as a credible political party, with the core values of integrity, service, and public accountability,” he said.

“In the same spirit of public accountability, I would ask that the party leaders make public the grounds of their decision and explain any disciplinary sanctions they would impose on me.”

Assoc Prof Goh, a sociologist at the National University of Singapore, stepped down from his appointments in WP’s central executive committee last year to focus on recovering from an unspecified health condition. He was the party’s organising secretary and the chair of its media team.

TODAY has reached out to WP for comment.

Assoc Prof Goh told TODAY on Sunday that he has not heard back from the party since publishing his Facebook post on Saturday. — TODAY