Key points as second witness takes the stand in Pritam Singh's trial

Loh Pei Ying says party veteran Low Thia Khiang’s advice was to clarify lie, and that WP would survive fallout

- Wong Pei Ting

Former Workers' Party (WP) cadre Loh Pei Ying was the second witness to take the stand in the trial of WP chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh, after the prosecution wrapped up former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan's re-examination within half an hour on the morning of Oct 17.

Here are the key points that came up on Oct 17, as the trial court sat for the fourth day:

1 LOH VIEWS KHAN'S LIE AS A 'BIG DEAL' AND 'STAIN ON WP'S HISTORY'

When Ms Loh took the stand, the court heard that she was a core member of WP's media team in the 2020 General Election, where Ms Khan was elected as a first-time MP.

By then, Ms Loh, the head and co-founder of editorial company Kontinentalist, had been with WP for almost 10 years. She became Ms Khan's secretarial assistant and helped the political newbie, who had started volunteering with WP only from the start of 2020, catch up with WP's history, among other duties, the court heard.

On Aug 7, 2021, Ms Khan confessed over a Zoom video conferencing call to Ms Loh and WP cadre Yudhishthra Nathan that she had lied when Parliament sat on Aug 3.

Ms Loh, who left WP at the end of 2022, sought to clarify the facts during the call, as Ms Khan was emotional and "wasn't very coherent".

They also discussed political history, Ms Loh said, noting that Ms Khan, then 27, "had generally quite a poor understanding" of WP's history.

For instance, Ms Khan did not know former Hougang WP MP Yaw Shin Leong was expelled from the party in 2012 over allegations that he had an extramarital affair with a married woman.

"She did not know that whole thing happened," Ms Loh told the court.

When she found out about Ms Khan's untruth on Aug 7, 2021, Ms Loh regarded the matter as a "big deal" and "stain" on WP's track record for an MP to have lied in that manner. She thus felt uncomfortable to have been made aware of it.