By Mak Khuin Weng

This nation is at a crossroad. One path leads to Barisan Nasional (BN) which cannot justify a debt of RM42 billion and with Cabinet Ministers who do not have the guts to either claim joint responsibility for 1MDB or disassociate themselves completely by resigning from their posts.

Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is riding high on public anger against 1MDB, yet he has not called for a reform to the system.

So even if Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak were to be toppled, the same opaque system that allowed 1MDB to happen would remain in place. We only need to look back to the financial scandals that happened during Mahathir’s era as Prime Minister to confirm that history is just repeating itself.

The other path leads to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) who cannot sit down together to speak behind closed doors. While DAP and PAS bicker and taunt each other in public, the Parliamentary Opposition Leader from PKR is shown to be little more than a puppet.

Indeed, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail received the worst setback yet to her leadership when shortly after she announced the intention of PR to set up a Shadow Cabinet, DAP went on to declare that they cannot trust PAS and submitted their own list for the Shadow Cabinet. This unilateral move by DAP also spoke volumes of how much respect and trust they have for PKR and Wan Azizah.

PAS rant about not having their issues taken seriously and threaten to cut ties with DAP, yet at the last step of truly calling it quits with Pakatan, they have cold feet because it would mean they lose power in Penang and Selangor.

While our politicians mock each other, the GST has hit car sales hard and our exports are down almost 9% in April compared to the same period last year.

Kelantan was struck by floods in January but the Federal and State government only just announced that they would start rebuilding the homes that were destroyed, some six months after the incident.

Selangor has several major highway projects in the pipeline that infringe on the personal rights of existing residents. One of these highways, the East Klang Valley Expressway (EKVE), will cut through the Ampang Forest Reserve that serves as a water catchment area for a water treatment plant that supplies a large urban portion of Selangor.

Sabah experienced a cross-border kidnapping for ransom again and an earthquake, but our government’s response to these emergencies were next to useless.

This is just a sampling of the worrisome issues affecting the rakyat that is not being addressed adequately by both BN and PR. There is a lack of responsibility and accountability – everything that goes wrong is someone else’s fault.

Politics is about the tsunami of voters wrapped in different flavours: Malay or Chinese. Progressives or Ulamas.

Stop this.

Both BN and PR need to refocus their attention on the issues that are affecting the rakyat under their care. The issues may or may not be caused by them, but they have a responsibility to right the wrongs all the same.

The elections are over and what matters only is that our elected representatives have a duty to everyone in their constituency — regardless of ethnicity, religion, social status, gender and political affiliation.

(This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of The Rocket)