Following news of an elderly resident’s death in her flat, Ms. Gho Sze Kee, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mountbatten, has shared her thoughts on the serious issue of what is called “lonely passing.” She believes the community needs to bring back the “kampung spirit” so that it’s “much harder for people to be forgotten.”
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Ms. Gho shared that she was informed about a 77-year-old resident who died alone in her Old Airport Road flat. The MP noted that she had done house visits at that specific block just a few months ago, but the woman was not home that evening. The woman was found dead on Friday (October 24) “only after some time had passed.”
Ms. Gho added, “Sadly, this is not the first case of a lonely passing that I have come across.”
Ms. Gho mentioned trials of a remote monitoring system that sends an alert if it detects unusual inactivity. However, she said these systems are “imperfect.”
She observed that some seniors may not like the idea of being watched in a “big brother way.” Because of this, society needs to decide whether these monitoring systems should be made mandatory and who should actually get them installed.
Instead of relying only on tech, Ms. Gho stressed that having a “vital support network” in the neighborhood is what truly matters. She believes human connection can’t be replaced, which is why she constantly talks about building up the kampung spirit.
She used a familiar Chinese saying to make her point: “远亲不如近邻”—which basically means a close neighbor is better than distant relatives.
She mentioned that a new “neighbourhood check-in programme” is coming up soon. However, Ms. Gho cautioned that even this new system can’t catch every single case, and even the most “dedicated activists” can’t knock on every door daily.
Ultimately, to truly succeed, the community itself must “step up” and offer “a little more care and friendship” to its neighbors. Ms. Gho concluded with a powerful thought: “We may never be able to prevent every single lonely passing, but we certainly can help prevent many lonely lives.”
