Police Reports Lodged Against WP Sengkang Candidate Raeesah Khan For Allegedly Making Online Comments About Race & Religion

If you’ve been watching the GE2020 closely (who isn’t?), you’ll know that other than Nicole Seah, there’s another Workers’ Party candidate that people are looking closely at:

Jamus Lim

He’s contesting in Sengkang GRC together with three of his WP teammates, Raeesah Khan, Louis Chua and He Ting Ru.

They are facing off against a PAP team comprising of Ng Chee Meng, Lam Pin Min, Amrin Amin and Raymond Lye.

Unfortunately, it seems like 5 days before polling day, the Sengkang team might have met with a snag.

Police Reports Lodged Against WP Sengkang Candidate Raeesah Khan For Allegedly Making Racist Comments Online

On 5 Jul 2020, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said that two police reports have been lodged against WP Sengkang Candidate Raeesah Khan for making the following comments on two different occasion.

One allegedly on 17 May 2020:

• where she allegedly implied that “Singapore law enforcement authorities discriminated against citizens” and said that “rich Chinese and white people were treated differently under the law” compared to other groups

And the second allegedly on 2 Feb 2018:

• With regards to the City Harvest Church saga, she allegedly said that “Singapore jailed minorities mercilessly, harassed mosque leaders but let corrupt church leaders free.”

SPF said that they’ve consulted with the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and were advised that “offence of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race under Section 298A of the Penal Code is disclosed”.

Police investigations are ongoing and if found guilty, she can be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.

A Recap On The City Harvest Case:

In 2015, six church leaders of City Harvest Church were convicted of using S$24 million from the church building fund to help its founder’s wife, Sun Ho, enter the English market as a singer.

The six leaders include Kong Hee (founder of the church), Tan Ye Ping (deputy senior pastor), Serina Wee (former finance manager), John Lam ( former finance committee member), Sharon Tan (former finance manager) and Chew Eng Han ( former fund manager).

They also used another S$26 million from the church to cover their complex web of lies.

Kong was sentenced to eight years while the other five received jail terms ranging from 21 months to six years.

But in 2017, the church leaders’ sentences were reduced on a technicality by the High Court, with the Kong’s jail term cut to three-and-a-half years.

On 1 Feb 2018, the decision by the Court of Appeal was centred towards whether or not the six leaders should have been convicted of simple criminal breach of trust (CBT) or more seriously as agents.

The court rules that the term “agent” in Section 409 of the Penal Code can only apply to one who is a professional agent, and not for company directors and key officers of charities.

The six leaders fall into the latter category which is why their sentences were reduced.

However, it was promised that the relevant authorities will work “on the appropriate revisions to the Penal Code, to ensure that company directors and other persons in similar positions of trust and responsibility are subject to appropriate punishments if they commit criminal breach of trust”.

In simple terms, it means that for the next Kong Hee will face harsher penalties.

So, who is Raeesah Khan?

Raeesah Begum Bte Farid Khan, 26 (Founder and Director of Programs, Reyna Movement)

If the name sounds familiar, then you should know about the 2017 Presidential Election, in which we didn’t get a chance to go to the polls.

She’s the daughter of Farid Khan, one of the Malays who had wanted to run in the 2017 Presidential Election but did not qualify for it.

Reyna Movement, an organization she found, aims to empower marginalised women and children through upskilling programs and community engagement.

The 26-year-old, who’s the youngest WP candidate so far, hopes for a more equal and just society, without prejudice and persecution of ideals.

You can find out more about her here.

Lest you’ve forgotten, polling day will be on next Friday (10 July). So what happens if you didn’t vote? Would you be jailed? Would you be barred from buying bubble tea for the next five years? Watch this video and you’ll know the consequences: