Tan Chuan-Jin’s mask fumble captured during official swearing-in ceremony

Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin has learned an important lesson when it comes to mask-donning–not to fiddle with it, especially during Singapore’s official swearing-in ceremony.

Mr Tan took to Facebook on Monday night (July 27) to share a fumble of his that was captured on camera. The photo saw Mr Tan trying to fix his face mask which had fallen off one ear.

The Singaporean government, on Monday, held its swearing-in ceremony for Cabinet members and political office holders that have been elected to their seats following the 2020 General Elections. The official ceremony saw each political figure take his or her oath of allegiance, solemnly vowing loyalty to the nation. However, social distancing measures were observed as well as the mandatory donning of masks, given the threat of Covid-19.

However, despite the solemnity of the event, Mr Tan still made quite the fumble–an incident he openly shared with Singaporeans on his Facebook account. “Lesson learned during my swearing ceremony,” he wrote. “One–donut fiddle with mask,” he said, making a pun out of his fame for having a sweet tooth.

“Two–make friends with cameraman..three–always practice your knots…four–always bring a spare donut,” he listed.

Mr Tan also shared the inner turmoil that raged within him during the fumble. “I snapped,” he said. “And I was swearing in too…under my breath…’mutter mutter… #*!”

In response to this, many netizens took to the comments section of Mr Tan’s post to share their thoughts. While many found the incident amusing overall, others had a laugh at how Mr Tan seemed to fiddle with the knots, trying to sort out the wardrobe malfunction. However, a few left a reminder for Mr Tan to always have an extra mask on hand.