Singapore’s Pritam Singh trial: ‘Lao Hong’ biscuit debate, ‘Gigachad’ lawyer becomes a meme

Singh, 48, is embroiled in a controversy arising from former Workers’ Party MP Raeesah Khan’s lies to Parliament in August 2021 about accompanying a rape victim to a police station. He faces two charges for making false statements in his testimony at parliamentary committee hearings in December of that year.

In front of a packed courtroom on Friday, Singh’s lawyer Andre Jumabhoy cross-examined prosecution witness and former party member Loh Pei Ying and asked whether she had described Khan as Lao Hong during a party disciplinary hearing in November of the same year.

What followed was a debate over the meaning of the Hokkien term, which means “leaking air” in English and is often used to describe crackers or cookies that have gone soft or lost their crunch.

Loh disagreed that the term meant “weak,” but said she used it Lao Hong because she felt that Khan was “quite vulnerable to criticism.”

When asked what her understanding of the dialect phrase meant, Loh replied: “Would you call a?” Lao Hong Cookie a weak cookie? … It’s just not a crispy cookie.”