I WRITE this with a sense of disappointment after witnessing how ungracious some Singaporeans can be.

While walking my dogs in the vicinity of my condominium recently, I noted that a BMW 7 Series car was parked in one of the two lots reserved for the handicapped.

It was not as if the regular parking lots were far away; there were many other regular lots available beside the handicap lots.

I approached the driver whose apartment is opposite the handicap lot to move his car to a regular lot, since he neither had a 'handicap' sign on his car nor did he look physically challenged.

He and his daughter told me to mind my own business and said they can park anywhere they want since they have lived in the condominium for 10 years.

Subsequently, I went down with my husband to take a photo of his car hoping that he would move his car after seeing us.

He did not.

This drives me to think that, despite Singapore being one of the financial hubs in the world, Singaporeans have failed to prove themselves gracious.

In fact, they are narrow-minded.

This reminds me of the article, 'A gracious Singapore? Not in my lifetime', published in The Straits Times on 9 Jan, in which Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew commented on graciousness in our society.

I hoped that he would be wrong for once.

But numerous incidents around us have proved time and again that he is right.

Instances such as the way we reserve tables in food courts by placing tissue packets to 'sleepers' occupying seats reserved for the handicapped serve as reminders that we need more than current efforts to improve graciousness.

Wendy Hah

This article was first published in The New Paper.