Allowance for mistakes - a misnomer or absurdity?

This statement by the former USM vice-chancellor and former Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamed baffles me so much I have to sit down and spare some time to pen this.

The problem is that it is either a misnomer or is what he really meant, which is rare and absurd.

Here, take a look at his statement:

“Mistakes will happen. In order for USM to excel, allowance for mistakes must be made. Furthermore, this was a technical glitch — a small mistake to me,” he said before delivering a keynote address at the Management in Construction Researchers Association (MiCRA) conference in USM here yesterday.”

The Star Online version has the full report, here.

Yes it was on the big screen at the vice-chancellor’s yearly speech today.

Actually, this was one of the two quotes that gave me an eye-opener in the VC’s speech, so I jotted them down. The other one was “…to challenge the status quo” by Sidek Hassan. But I’ll save delving into this for another time.

In the English language context, when you use the idiom “make allowance(s)” it means you give allowance (like giving way or a chance/opportunity) for someone or something.

So, I asked my better half, seated next to me, “the correct word should be ‘amends’ to be made and not ‘mistakes’. How can you give allowance for people to make mistakes?"

As usual, no response from her.

Furthermore, if you give allowance for people to make mistakes, they would take things for granted and crave for more ‘mistakes’ to be done. Yeah, they will keep on making mistakes til your patience runs out and finally give them the 'grounding' rules and "so, no more allowances for you..."

Is that what you mean by allowance for mistakes must be made.

The internet’s freedictionary.com describe 'make allowance' as:
1. to allow time, space, food, etc., for someone or something. For e.g., “When planning the party, please make allowances for John and his family. I'm making allowance for ten extra guests.”
2. to make excuses or explanations for someone or something; to take into consideration the negative effects of someone or something. You're very late even when we make allowance for the weather. We have to make allowance for the age of the house when we judge its condition.

The site here.

But, on the other hand, -- yes -- you can give or make such allowances (of any kind including mistakes) for kids and toddlers.

But normally you don’t give or make allowances for adults to make mistakes, more so if it involves certain aspects of your job, and you are supposed to be a pro at it. This is what I learn here in USM, at least in the current post and at the current place I am working now -- or somebody will go into a trance!

I tried to search using yahoo.com to find if there were other statements of the same breadth, but no can do. There’s no particular site on the internet which had a phrase or statement written as “…allowance for mistakes must be made” or “…to be done.”

So, in Bolehland, we are the first.

Congratulations for us to be the first to coin such a rare new phrase/statement.