Singapore—Member of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin found himself stuck in a lift on Wednesday night (19 August).He posted a photo of himself along with some others in the elevator on his Facebook page, with a joking reference to the seventh month, or “Ghost Month,” according to tradition.
Mr Tan was on his way to visit someone at home.
Along with four others, the Speaker of Parliament can be seen in the photo, along with the words, “Help us!!! First day of the Seventh Month! Lift dropped from the ground floor to…” along with three OMG face emojis.
He captioned the photo with, “Lift ‘dropped’ from ground floor to…??!! Was stuck for awhile before being rescued. Anyways…climbed up to 10th floor to resume my HV. I’m sure it’s not a signal to stop the visit… ? ” accompanied by more emojis, including the ghost emoji.
And while the Speaker was presumably only having a bit of fun, perhaps to find the lighter side of the situation (since getting stuck in a lift can be a cause for anxiety), one netizen commented that he had recently had the same experience.
Jenn Git Ho wrote in a comment to Mr Tan’s post, “I had the same experience in one of the HDB lifts in Chinatown a few months ago. When I checked the lift’s Permit to Operate, I realised it has long expired. Very poorly maintained.”
Mr Tan responded to his comment right away, asking him to message directly for more details, as, the Speaker wrote, “That shouldn’t be the case.”
The netizen replied, “I had wanted to go up to the highest floor to admire the night view of the Chinatown shophouses. I believe it is the Chinatown Complex located along Smith Street. It comes with HDB units with at least 20+ storeys if I remember correctly. Thanks for the quick response!”
It seemed that Mr Tan and the others in the lift were fine, as an hour later he resumed posting on his Facebook account, and the Speaker even said he had “visited some of our Muslim residents in Ubi just now,” and he wished them greetings for the Islamic New Year.