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Raeesah Khan

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The Right Honourable
Raeesah Begum Farid Khan
MP
Member of the Singapore Parliament
for Sengkang GRC
Incumbent
Assumed office
TBA
Preceded byConstituency established
Personal details
Born
Raeesah Begum Farid Khan

1994 (age 29–30)
Singapore
CitizenshipSingaporean
Political partyWorkers' Party
Alma materMurdoch University
OccupationActivist, politician

Raeesah Begum Farid Khan (born 1994) is a Singaporean activist and politician of the Workers' Party.[1] She was elected into the Parliament of Singapore as a representative for the Sengkang Group Representation Constituency following the 2020 Singaporean general election.[2]

Early life and career

The founder of the Reyna Movement, Raeesah has been a social activist since she was 17, mainly focusing on underprivileged families, survivors of sexual abuse, youth activists, migrant workers and refugee issues.[1][3]

Prior to entering politics, she studied economics and marketing at Murdoch University.[3] From 2014 to 2015, she was also an elected member on the senatorial governing body at Murdoch University.[4][5]

Political career

Raeesah became a member of the Workers' Party in 2019, having previously volunteered in the party's grassroots activities. On 30 June 2020, She was announced as one of the party's four members contesting the Sengkang Group Representation Constituency as part of the 2020 Singaporean general election, alongside Jamus Lim, He Ting Ru, and Louis Chua.[6] She is also the youngest candidate of the party.[3]

She was subsequently elected with 52.13% of the votes, defeating the People's Action Party in an upset victory that secured a second group representation constituency for the Workers' Party.[7][8][9]

Controversy

Allegations of discriminatory comments

Prior to getting elected, two separate police reports were lodged against Raeesah for allegedly making two online comments, both relating to the discrimination of race and religion; The reports were based against her Facebook post in May 2020, which had criticised the Singapore law enforcement authorities for discriminating against Singaporean citizens and said that "rich Chinese" and "white people" were treated differently under the law, which was largely based on the differences in sentences handed out to individuals who broke the circuit breaker measures in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and another in February 2018, which were focused on the 2018 City Harvest Church ruling.[10][11][12][13] WP later came out to support Raeesah; Raeesah also apologised and released a statement stating that her intention was "never to cause social divisions but to raise awareness on minority issues", adding that she also regretted making her "insensitive" comments.[14][15][16]

Since the incident, many netizens labelled the bringing up of her past comments as a political move, with hashtags such as "#IStandWithRaeesah" trending on Twitter.[17] A Change.org petition was made on 6 July to let Raeesah campaign smoothly and conduct investigations only after the elections, which had garnered almost 20,000 signatures by polling day. On 7 July, the police revealed that they’re investigating the man who allegedly reported Raeesah over social media comments which intended to wound religious and racial feelings.[18]

Personal life

Raeesah Khan is the daughter of Farid Khan, who intended to run in the 2017 Singaporean presidential election but had his Certificate of Eligibility rejected.[19][20] As of 2020, she is married with an infant son.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b "Raeesah Begum Bte Farid Khan". Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  2. ^ "ELD | 2020 Parliamentary General Election Results". www.eld.gov.sg. Archived from the original on 2020-07-10. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  3. ^ a b c "WP GE 2020 candidate Raeesah Khan: Being an elected official does not make one "more important than the person cleaning our tables"". 29 June 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  4. ^ Raeesah Khan. “Experience”. LinkedIn. Accessed on 1 July 2020.
  5. ^ "Senate". Murdoch University. Accessed on 3 July 2020.
  6. ^ Abu Baker, Jalelah (30 June 2020). "GE2020: PAP and WP to face off in new four-member Sengkang GRC". CNA.
  7. ^ "GE2020: Workers' Party claims Sengkang GRC in upset win". TODAYonline. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  8. ^ "GE2020: WP scores stunning win in Sengkang, 2nd GRC ever to be won by opposition". sg.news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  9. ^ "GE2020: WP scores stunning win in Sengkang, 2nd GRC ever to be won by opposition". 11 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  10. ^ Tee Zhuo (5 July 2020). "Singapore GE2020: Police investigating WP's Sengkang candidate Raeesah Khan over alleged online comments on race and religion". The Straits Times. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  11. ^ "Police investigating WP candidate Raeesah Khan over alleged online comments on race, religion". CNA. 5 July 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  12. ^ "Police investigating WP candidate Raeesah Khan for social media posts which allegedly promote enmity between different groups". Today. Singapore. 5 July 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  13. ^ Belmont Lay (5 July 2020). "2 police reports made against WP's Raeesah Khan over alleged comments on race". mothership.sg. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  14. ^ Rei Kurohi (5 July 2020). "Singapore GE2020: WP's Raeesah Khan apologises for comments on race and religion which are under police investigation". The Straits Times. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  15. ^ Chia Han Keong (5 July 2020). "GE2020: Workers' Party stands by Sengkang GRC candidate Raeesah Khan following 2 police reports". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  16. ^ Ashley Tan (5 July 2020). "WP's Raeesah Khan apologises for alleged racial comments, Pritam Singh says no regrets fielding her". mothership.sg. Mothership. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Despite police report, support for WP's Raeesah Khan is growing – The Independent News". Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  18. ^ "GE2020: Police probing person who allegedly made report on WP candidate Raeesah Khan's social media posts". Today. Singapore. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  19. ^ Tang, See Kit, Chew, Hui Min. “GE2020: Workers’ Party introduces five more prospective candidates”. Channel News Asia. June 26, 2020. Accessed on 1 July 2020.
  20. ^ Tan, Audrey., Kurohi, Rei. “Singapore GE2020: Workers’ Party confirms Aljunied GRC slate, introduces second batch of candidates”. The Straits Times. June 26, 2020. Accessed on 1 July 2020.
  21. ^ Raeesah Begum Bte Farid Khan. “Personal Profile”. Workers’ Party. Accessed on 1 July 2020.
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