Since the last general election, more politicians can be seen trying to avoid blame for so many unpopular decisions compared to those claiming credit for good ones.

With the next general election (GE15) fast approaching, social media is littered with accounts of scapegoating, passing the buck and party-hopping. The perpetrators have been trying to account for all their actions in a bid to whitewash their dismal failures and in some cases, stupid actions.

As for the voters, they still blame their rival party for policy failures, and tend to ignore any information that challenges their beliefs.

Government failures are a reality in any political system, but if three governments in three years either perpetuate poor policies or refuse to right the many wrongs and keep blaming others, we are headed south.

Pejuang chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he would still be prime minister if not for PKR president Anwar Ibrahim. Many Malaysians were dumbfounded, with netizens not having any sympathy for the man who had, in his prime, made a name for the nation.

Most forgot that he helped modernise the country and arguably was the most intelligent prime minister we have had, never mind that the high intellect was used more for Machiavellian politics.

“If not because of Anwar, I would still be prime minister. When I resigned, the Agong asked all 220 MPs to write down their choice for prime minister. I thought Pakatan Harapan (PH) would choose me because I was with Harapan. But Anwar said he had a lot of support.”

And shockingly, he went into the nitty-gritty of the numbers game that came about after he resigned. It’s funny he is resorting to blaming others when a good section of the population has concluded that he is the main cause of our political stalemate.

He has forgotten the many promises that PH failed to keep and his excuse that “PH did not expect to win, so we made the pledges” is still fresh in many minds.

At a time when the nation is looking for answers to steer it back in the right direction, the obsession to kill Anwar’s political career has resurfaced in the 96-year-old political maverick, making people wonder what his motive is for this sudden “revelation”.

PKR leaders then replied saying he is to blame for all of the nation’s ills, asking Mahathir to be honest in his views. It was a ding-dong battle between the two.

Former prime minister Najib Razak has been constantly putting the blame on PH for the current economic situation and the country’s high debts, with graphs and all to show how the situation has worsened since May 2018.

I don’t know if he really believes in all that he posts; I am sure he knows what went wrong in the first place that led to what he terms as a “cap ayam” PH government taking over. He has completely ignored the massive corruption that hit the nation under his watch, that led to the fall of Barisan Nasional (BN) for the first time in 60 years.

He’s strolling about as if he was blameless while the nation slips several rankings in the world corruption standings. Many Malaysians know he was the catalyst that triggered the anger among the voters as PH exploited issues such as 1MDB and Jho Low very successfully, and Najib was directly linked to them.

When PH came into power, their focus most of the time was to blame Najib and BN for some of their bad policies. It was shocking to hear PH leaders say that many promises in the PH manifesto could not be kept because of the mess left behind by BN.

PH leaders blamed BN and Umno endlessly in their bid to hide many of their failures.

Perikatan Nasional has been no different, consistently pointing fingers at the so-called “court cluster” in Umno for dragging down the nation, forgetting that its component parties Bersatu and PAS had also blamed DAP for all the ills in PH when they jointly staged the Sheratan coup d’etat.

Now DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook has blamed Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob for causing political instability by making contrasting statements about GE15.

On the GLC front, KTMB chief executive Rani Hisham Samsudin stated that the reason behind the massive traffic jams is the Malaysian public’s general refusal to make full use of public transport.

However, when questioned about delays in train services, he stated the company would need five years to improve the situation.

Shifting the blame is in the DNA of most politicians, and that blame game can only be ended by the voters.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.