COMMENT Blood, as they say, is thicker than water. An allusion to the actual condition of the ruddy thickness that fills our veins, compared to the lesser consistency of the liquid that some say gives and begets life.

But the in-between of the lines speaks of the nigh unbreakable biological bond of genetics and the fraternity of lineage, and how it often supersedes all other connections, for better or for worse.

The family, as they say, is forever and the tie that binds us all till the eternal. Bother to brother, to sister, to father, to mother, to cousin, to uncle, to aunt, etcetera, etcetera. The total tally of blood relatives and connected kindred.

We are often naturally closer to those who are related to us, and even if we are not, we usually tolerate more from them than from most outside. They are family, warts and all.

More often than not, as many of us have found out, it is the family that will stand with you when all others will not, and so would you for them.

Of course, there is that other side, more snidely put, who would lament that it is the devil that gave you your relatives, thanking God that you can still choose your friends.

For at times it is family that would embarrass, trouble and bother us the most. But be that as it may, it would truly take a lot for a person to turn away from his or her own flesh and blood.

It would truly take something so extraordinarily bad to negate the ties that bind us by deed and blood. Only something so bad and enormous and wide-ranging in its consequences can be behind a brother regretting his honest service to a brother.

What must that brother know to have it in him to turn his back on a brother, even if unconsciously and in a statement referring to just a favour? My oh my, oh dear, regret, or just to wish that he hadn’t done that favour shows more than just questions but perhaps something more deep down.

A family helping family thing?

For it needs to be a heavy thing, to drag down the heart so that one can indirectly, if not effectively, denounce one's sibling. Or even allude to one's conscience, if not guilt, to have been involved in what was seen at the time as just a family helping family thing.

There is blood and there is water, but there is also conscience and one's guilt and honour. How could the same genetics produce two different offshoots, one who flies in the face of honour, and one who still keeps to his conscience and guilt.

Not all those privileged demand respect, perhaps. Some do not revel in their lineage, even if they may have made use of it; others related to them; however, may have run amok with their privileged in tow, hiding always behind the name of their father.

Some may have wondered whether, if the conditions were reversed, would we have been been better off with the one rather than the other? A moot question perhaps, for maybe the one with the guilt and honour would not have survived the journey through the rabbit hole which leads to the warrens of those who rule.

There is blood and there is water... and one is thicker. We can only hope that it would be that there is more substance to guilt and honour, as compared to the blind loyalty to realtives or fear of shame to a family's legacy and stature.

For, at times, it is blood that needs to be less thicker when weighed by the scales of guilt and honour. For our conscience would demand that we answer the guilt that we find, with honourable actions and the courage to frame truth, even if at great cost.

Indeed, you can wish that you haven't, but it would not change what was. But you may do something still, to change what is and to be for the better. Maybe it’s time to stand up and be counted, and give proper reverence to the surname that you bear. For if he has forsaken it, you can still perhaps salvage what is left and make it great once more.

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of Team Malaysiakini.