Man, 72, says Gan Siow Huang didn't intentionally ignore him when he went to shake her hand

The man, who was seen in a video trying to shake hands with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry Gan Siow Huang on May 17 when he went up to her, accused online commenters of taking the clip out of context to paint a misleading picture of the interaction.

From his point of view, Gan was "very friendly" and she did not intentionally ignore him, said the man.

The man's account

At a press conference on Jun. 13, it was revealed that the 73-year-old man, Leong Chee Leng, was a member of a lion dance troupe that was performing at the inaugural Peck San Theng Cultural Festival.

Leong told The Straits Times that Peck San Theng's president had invited the troupe to welcome Gan, who is the MP for Marymount SMC, at Peck San Theng temple in Bishan.

Leong was not officially part of the welcoming committee for Gan, but stepped forward to shake her hand as he was excited to meet her, according to Shin Min Daily News.

Leong said that when Gan stepped out of the car, the lion dance troupe was playing the drums and it was noisy.

Gan was also putting her phone back in her pocket at the time and smiled at Leong while doing so.

"She wanted to shake my hand, but the other gentleman got there first, and reached out to shake her hand," Leong told ST.

Leong also told Shin Min that the man whose hand Gan shook first was the chairman of the Peck San Theng Cultural Festival organising committee, which was "reasonable".

Video taken out of context: Man

Furthermore, during the festivities that day, Leong had a chance to converse with Gan and found her to be a friendly person.

Hence, Leong hoped the public would not be misled by the originally circulated video, which he felt was "maliciously edited" and taken out of context.

After the initial video went viral, commenters responded by saying that Gan appeared disrespectful to the man in the red shirt.

Another version of the video released by the temple showed Gan putting her phone back into her pocket as Leong held out his hand.

This was not shown in the earlier footage.

After shaking the chairman's hand, Gan looked around before shaking Leong's hand, followed by the rest of the welcoming committee.

"We talked it out and everything is okay. I didn't take the incident to heart," Leong told ST.

The vice-chairman of the festival's organising committee explained that Leong had not been arranged to be part of the welcoming committee for Gan, Shin Min reported.

He explained that he did not stop Leong when he came forward, as he thought Leong was the captain of the lion dance troupe and that this was part of their performance.

However, this disrupted the order that the committee had planned out for Gan's welcome, the vice-chairman added.

Apology

Gan subsequently apologised on Jun. 8 for the delay in shaking hands with the man in a response published by ST.

On the incident, Gan said she was "trying to identify the host of Peck San Theng" and greet him first.

She also said she was overwhelmed by the "big group" that had gone up to greet her, and it was her first visit to Peck San Theng.

Gan added that she has requested the event organiser to convey her apologies to Leong.

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Top image from Shin Min Daily News