If you have been in Singapore for the past 4 months, you would have been quite familiar with the name, Raesah Khan. For those who are no familiar with the name, yet, let Abang just give you a brief background of who she is and what happened.
Raesah Khan is the daughter of Farid Khan. If you think that the name, Faird Khan, sounds familiar, you may have heard about him during the 2017 presidential election. Farid Khan made waves when he expressed interest in running for the presidential election. It was unfortunate, though, that his application to run for the election got rejected due to the revised "rules for the Elected Presidency, [in which] candidates from the private sector need to have managed a company with a minimum shareholder equity of $500 million”, as cited by TodayOnline. It was a disappointing outcome, and Abang guess, that is the reason why everyone was so looking forward to Raesah Khan’s entry into the politics. We wanted to see what she could bring into the political arena, given that her father almost became a presidential candidate in 2017. In 2020, her team won the general election and she became the youngest member of parliament. Prior to this, Raesah was plagued with a barrage of controversies. Right before she was elected, reports about her past comments on racial issues was surfaced. During this controversy, a twitter hashtag movement, “#IStandwithRaesah” was trending, which was reflective of how influential she was. There was also blog post by blogger, Xiaxue, that questioned about Raesah Khan’s agenda in joining the political arena and if Raesah’s political view is in any way influenced by Angela Davis. Now, thinking about this, Abang got excited, especially with the whole circus that has been happening at the Committee of Privilege (COP) hearings. Abang will get to this in a while.
In August, Raesah threw herself into the limelight once again in Parliament when she brought up the issue of how the Singapore Police Force handled sexual assault cases, which then sparked another round of controversies, and by November 1st this year, it was suddenly revealed that she had lied in Parliament. This then led to the series of investigations and interrogations that was then presented in the COP hearings for the past few weeks. Things became more complicated when Raesah implicated the whole Worker’s Party in one of the hearings.
Personally, when Abang watched the hearings that was uploaded onto the different social media platforms, Abang cannot help but to feel how the whole things felt… rehearsed. Before you say anything, let Abang clarify… Yes, personally Abang felt and still feel that the whole thing is orchestrated. And Abang is glad that many Singaporeans caught on to the performativity aspect to the hearings.
The word performativity here implies that everyone at the hearing is putting some form of a performance and that they are not truly themselves, but instead they are putting on a character. Professor Judith Butler explains the performativity lies in the act that are continuously carried out in constructed manner or orchestrated, to the point that it shows some form of identity, but this identity is not one that is authentic or true to the self. This idea of performativity is very evident in rehearsal processes where the performers keep on rehearsing to build a make-believe character based on the roles that have been assigned to them. They then go on to create a make-believe world before the performance is presented to the audience. Of course, Abang has to put a big DISCLAIMER here - Abang is not going to argue or deny the truths that may very well be presented in the hearings. That is not the purpose of this post. The purpose of this post is to just highlight what Abang observed, which have also been echoed by many other Singaporeans. The performativity of the whole matter, where everything seemed rehearsed and polished and of performance quality, right up to Raesah’s appearance in the hearing with a dishevelled hair. Multiple memes ( of which you can easily find via google search) have exploded and filled up the virtual space ever since Pritam Singh made his appearance to give his statements with regards to the whole issue. One particular video caught Abang’s attention—it is the one that shows the exchange between Edwin Tong and Pritam Singh, with Pritam Singh ending his speech with the quote: “I am the Leader of the Opposition”. Again here, the role is highlighted, and the multiple/repeated acts that come with the role is also highlighted.
This idea of performativity then raise a few questions in Abang’s head and a conspiracy theory began to form. Abang does notice that, in the hearings, Pritam Singh actually took the opportunity to bring up past unresolved issues such as the transparency of the governing bodies that are responsible for the Trace Together app. This was a good move, and it begs the question of -- What if the whole thing is orchestrated by someone to show the gaps and the weaknesses that exist within the system? What if this is a tactical move to show Singaporeans how inefficient the system can be, and, possibly, get them to rethink of the situation in Singapore? These are, in Abang’s opinion, some questions to ponder as we move into 2022.
Also, Abang thought it is interesting that Angela Davis, whom Raesah is a fan of, did suggest for the abolition of the police force and the prison, and a total make-over to the whole system in a country.
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