Are we a Gracious Society?

Gracious society refers to being a board-minded society in acceptance of personal mistakes and the willingness to forgive and forget.

The yellow-ribbon project was established based on this aim.

But are we really ready to be one gracious society yet?

Cite an example from my recent HK trip. In Mongkok area, many streets were closed off at nights for night hawkers to put up stalls and the tourists, locals can walk casually without the fear of being runned down and SHOP. However, there were also a few shorter streets by the side that does not have any legalised hawkers... just an empty open space for pedestrians.

I was intrigued by the number of "illegal" make-shift hawkers that plough this lane to sell new and interesting items that were not sold in the main streets. As we were walking along the streets, we noticed that someone was shouting "You Lei La!". Quickly, without hesitation, the illegal hawkers pulled out a big canvas and cover their goods and started to push their carts away.

In the movies or in the past, they would run for their life, for fear of losing their goods and paying heavy fines.

Today, they quickly move to get out of the way of the Police Officers that were strolling down that lane. The PO did not attempt to run after the illegal hawkers, nor did they attempt to catch them. In fact, i witness one of the PO asking one of the illegal hawkers "where is his brother". The hawker, pushing his cartfull of goodies, replied "Oh, he's in another street."

The PO did their job by ensuring that the street was clear of any form of hawkers but they did not have to restort to chasing them down nor imposing heavy fines on those present on the streets. As long as the PO do not witness anyone of them making sales along that street, they are willing to let these hawkers go.

That is Humanity, that is a Gracious Society. In recognition of personal efforts to keep a living and not abusing the system to impose unreasonable fines on citizens who are trying hard to make ends meet.

So now back to us, Singaporeans, are we ready to be gracious?

Take for example, the wheel clamp incident I came across. One security says that its dangerous to part infront of the pseudo"high pressure" room while another says that the car on the day before had "permission" to park there. So which is right? or Both? if that is the case, why not let the first time offenders get off with a stern warning and a waste of 1hr of their precious time? Why must we INSIST on collecting the fines if its purpose was to be a warning?

In a similar incident involving wheel clamps in another building, when I and a few other vehicle owners approached the security officer for their leniency, their replies was " I am sorry that I cannot do anything unless you pay the fine, once it is recorded in our system, we HAVE to collect the fines. Otherwise, my supervisior will scold me or even worse take away my job. Because he say, if I am not willing to be harsh, there will be others will are willing to take my job." (ps. the supervisior is actually located in another building, but he keeps check via CCTV)

Imagine, in the span of 1hr, more than 4 vehicle owners came to the same spot as me to pay $$ to get their cars unclamped. What does it tell you about the car park system??

Even if the society was to be gracious, I doubt that our laws and the 'rules' allow for that to happen.