SINGAPORE — Associate Professor Daniel Goh has made public his expulsion from the Workers’ Party (WP), the largest opposition political party in Singapore.
Assoc Prof Goh, a sociologist at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament, shared the news on his Facebook page on Thursday evening.
In a detailed post, Assoc Prof Goh explained that he received the notification of his expulsion while away on a work trip. “Daddy, you are expelled from the Workers’ Party!” exclaimed his son upon opening the registered mail.
The former cadre member of WP described the incident as the final act in his retirement from politics.
Assoc Prof Goh’s expulsion comes after an internal dispute related to his Facebook posts on the party’s handling of the Raeesah Khan saga where the former WP MP for Seng Kang GRC resigned from the party and Parliament on 30 November 2021 after making unsubstantiated allegations in Parliament on three occasions and a Committee of Privileges being held as a result of the allegations made.
In September last year, Assoc Prof Goh shared that WP had established a disciplinary committee to investigate the issue, though he had declined to participate in an interview with the committee.
The root of the controversy lay in Assoc Prof Goh’s criticism of the party’s leadership in dealing with former MP Raeesah Khan’s admission of lying in Parliament.
Assoc Prof Goh had repeatedly called for the leadership to take responsibility for allowing Khan’s actions to persist over several months.
The committee had expressed concern that Assoc Prof Goh’s posts revealed the party’s internal dynamics and could potentially give political opponents an inside understanding of WP’s operations. His posts were also perceived to have negatively impacted the image of the party’s leadership.
However, Assoc Prof Goh defended his position, arguing that his posts were questions based on public information. He stated his belief in the importance of public accountability and integrity in political leaders.
He also expressed disagreement with the notion of viewing the government or any political party as “political opponents” and questioned the implication that his actions, rather than the party leadership’s response, had led to a loss of trust in WP.
The former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (MP) had earlier stepped down from his positions in WPs central executive committee in 2020 due to an unspecified health condition. His roles included serving as the party’s organising secretary and the chair of its media team.
In his latest post, Assoc Prof Goh indicated that the expulsion would allow him to focus more on his responsibilities at NUS. “With this closure, I can now focus on serving my country in my responsibilities in NUS,” he wrote.
He added, “Gotta update my CV to say I was expelled from WP for calling out the leadership. Anyways, my dear friends, thanks for all the support and concern all these years, they were really important for me during this fruitful political journey!”
TOC has reached out to WP for their response to Assoc Prof Goh’s Facebook post and subsequent expulsion.
