My mother’s name is Grace. The grace of god is a fundamental and important concept in all religions. Grace is ‘an undeserved pardon’ in common parlance.

Grace is when we get more than what we deserve to get in very human terms. Grace is also when we get love instead of punishment. Grace is when we receive forgiveness instead of the punishment we rightly deserve in the here and now.

Grace is also when the government pays the ex-judges an ex-gratia payment for their wrongful dismissal and an error of judgment of the past leadership. The government of Malaysia showed grace and let us leave it at that.

Grace is the human reflection of some aspect of a godly character over a matter. We cannot analyse it to death. Why then is it so difficult for us within our culture to accept this concept of grace as a core value of our life in Malaysia?

Grace is definitely not the ‘close one eye’ culture. Grace is not looking the other way when someone is doing wrong.

Grace is not the lack of discipline. Grace is not absolving wrongdoing by breaking the law in so doing. Grace cannot be ignoring the rule of law.

Rather, grace is emphasising that the rule of law in spirit and in truth. It is protecting and preserving that which is designed to safeguard the man for whom the law is made in the first place.

While such laws cut both ways; to encourage right-doing and to punish wrongdoing, it cannot be used as a vehicle to promote or propagate wrong values of about what is right and wrong in human life.

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McCain’s gracious concession speech

A few things about the American culture of graceful leadership impressed me as I followed the US presidential elections and the afterwards which followed.

First was presidential contender, John McCain’s concession speech. It was not only gracious but was filled and peppered with graceful words and thoughts, and his willingness to work with the president-elect to unite the nation.

That was magnanimity personified.

The speech was also given very early in the night, when the full reality had already hit home to the Republican side, even if only based on mathematical predictions and probabilities.

Graciousness is and was the way of life of the Republican candidate and his close allies in fighting the presidential election and then conceding defeat.

The next was Barack Obama’s victory speech. It too was filled with graciousness and sought to unite the divided nation to rise up to the many looming challenges ahead. It challenged all parties to respond to the challenges ahead.

Finally, there was the current and outgoing President George W Bush’s transition accommodation for the newly-elected president and that too was filled with the value of graciousness.

But why is it that this is not yet a good value and common practice in the ordinary life of Malaysia? To me, for example, the ketuanan value is the anti-thesis to the concept of graciousness.

The four ungraceful exits

For example, why were the former state governments of the ruling federal government so ungraceful in their exit from governance in the four new states they lost after the last general elections?

Why did they remove or destroy official records of the government?

Why are parties so ungracious with their members who lost? Are these not also their people, even if not as popular? Why are parties and members so ungracious in accepting truths when they are clearly asserted by their own?

Why are the Pakatan Rakyat governments apparently gracious when dealing with obvious wrongdoing when clearly the law was violated in very many specific cases? Why is the federal government so ungracious in accepting that the Hindraf leaders may in fact have a case and there could have been genuine structural oversight in their specific issues?

Is it then gracious when we close eyes to double and triple parking on Fridays or Sundays near religious places of worship? Are we then gracious when laws are broken obviously in front of the eyes of all of us, like with motorcyclists going through red lights almost everyday without concern for their lives?

Is it graciousness when restaurants break the law everyday and set up tables and chairs on streets and roads with impunity? Is it graciousness when motorcyclists carry two other minor passengers and we do not see anything wrong? Where does such graciousness begin and the rule of law end?

To me, what distinguishes a developed country from an underdeveloped one is the place of the rule of law, and how many people operate under this rule of law. It is one thing for the citizens to break the rules of law; for it is precisely to monitor and enforce good behaviour that such rules exist.

But it is entirely another thing when the enforcement agencies decide to close one eye to clear-cut law-breakers. Such discretion is not graciousness but part and parcel of the ‘close one eye’ culture.

Frankly, law enforcers need not forgive law-breakers. No one is above the law, not even the enforcers. Neither are the interpreters of the laws. Allowing such action is when corruption sets in.

If someone breaks the law, he should face the law and whether to allow that offence to be pardoned or to be forgiven is a judicial matter and not a matter for enforcement. Normally such discretion for such graciousness is built into the appeal function and is also limited by law.

Culture of graciousness

Rules and laws are sacrosanct and need to be respected by all of us and no one is really above the law. I am not sure where and how our ‘close one eye’ culture started, but it makes a mockery of rules and regulations if we do not put an end to such an endemic disease in our midst.

While we seek to develop and evolve a culture of a two-party system in our midst, what is most needed is that we also seek to develop our culture of graciousness.

It was graciousness, for example, for the Penang government to recognise the opposition leader in the state assembly and to pay that person a monthly allowance.

Finally, the opposition is now viewed as a possible shadow government. Rejecting this allowance is actually rejection of the recognition. Do not cut off your nose to spite your face.

May we grow in graciousness in Malaysia.