WHERE ARE WE HEADED AS A NATION?

Malaysia is a hotbed of controversies these days. Over at the Barisan Nasional (BN) camp, controversies include the Goods and Services Tax (GST), dubious accounting and business practices (1MDB) and the arbitrary unilateral subjugation via the Sedition Act.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has its fair share of self-inflicted controversies including Hudud, the use of the word “Allah”, and the poor choice for a previous Menteri Besar for Selangor that necessitated a convoluted “Kajang Move” to resolve. This in turn created a huge rift between the coalition partners.

These actions by BN and PR are done to consolidate and perpetuate their respective power bases. PAS becomes more popular with the conservative rural Malay voters while DAP is scoring points with their staunch non-Muslim voters. For BN, the GST will supposedly help pay for the Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) scheme that is popular among the poor – in effect, taxing all citizens (including the poor) to give back to the people.

While these two juggernauts fight it out, the actual important, day-to-day issues faced by the rakyat are being ignored. What sort of future are our politicians trying to carve for the people?

Our previous Prime Ministers – whatever your opinion of them – at the very least had the vision and direction on where they wanted to take the nation. Be it improving the living standards of the poor or reinventing our nation into a technological hub, there was at least a set plan which was then executed to the best of their abilities.

What is the vision of Datuk Seri Najib Razak?

What is the vision of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (or for that matter, his replacement as opposition leader)?

Instead of having a vision for the rakyat, the public are now entrenched as scapegoats in the convoluted machinations of BN and PR politics.

We are floundering as a nation and need better direction. Neither BN nor PR provide it. They continue to bicker amongst themselves while allowing wealthy private corporations to dictate the national agenda.

Case in point: The proposals to develop tolled-highways in Selangor that are not justified with proper studies.

As a Petaling Jaya resident leader (I am merely a Residents Association chairman), I had to step up and work with fellow resident leaders, and concerned citizens to highlight the issues involving a controversial highway known as Kidex and DASH (see: more acronyms). Worse yet, the federal government which should have championed the rakyat’s cause from the get go instead supported the concessionaires. In fact, in the case of Kidex, the federal government (BN) continues to do so despite the rejection by the state government (Pakatan).

It took multiple letters of objection and a joint rally held by the people to evoke a response from the powers that be. The fact that the rakyat are the ones forced to do the leg work to fight off the corporations (instead of our elected representatives and local councillors) only goes to show the level of systemic failure of governance, transparency and corruption on both sides of the divide.

To hide their own shortcomings, our politicians continue to divide us and pit us against each other, allowing feelings of hate, distrust and anger to fester and boil over. They are not building a nation but destroying it.

The politicians forget that their duty as leaders is not to enrich or empower themselves or their political parties but instead to shelter and protect the weak, to enable the people to prosper the nation and to strengthen our bond as brothers and sisters regardless of our individual beliefs.

Pakatan, please get your house in order. Appoint an opposition leader to replace Anwar Ibrahim and work out your differences. Barisan, cease and desist in making the rakyat pay for the mistakes of a few. Stop attempting to silence people for asking righteous questions that need answering.

Do what is right for the nation, not yourselves or your political parties. The more you tread your present path, the more you divide all of us. There will come a point in time when it will be all you can do – keep us separated at all costs. Don’t lead us down this path.

Mak Khuin Weng

Sunway Damansara Avenue 23 Residents Association chairman