Politicians from both sides decry treatment of Teh Yee Cheu by DAP

GEORGE TOWN: Fellow state assemblypersons from both sides of the political divide have come to the defense of embattled Tanjung Bungah elected representative Teh Yee Cheu after he was stripped of his annual allocation of RM200,000 by the state for rebelling against his own party – DAP.
Teh, who has been openly critical of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's administration, found himself without the required funds to serve his constituents this year after he announced plans to leave DAP once the next general election was called.
Allocations from the state government should be fairly distributed to all state assemblymen in order for them to help the people they represented in their respective constituencies, said PKR's Penanti assemblyperson Dr Norlela Ariffin.
Norlela however, said it is the right of the state administration if it decides not to disburse the funds to state assemblypersons who were not in sync with the state administration's policies and aspirations.
"In a proper democratic process, a government regardless state or federal should help everyone under its rule, but it has been a practice by Malaysia under its own democratic process to punish people and not disburse funds to them, if they are not in the agreement with the state policies," she told theSun when contacted.
Teh was reportedly upset after he was told by the state finance department that the decision was from the state government.
It was learned that the allocation was now being handled by Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari, of which Tanjung Bungah is a state seat under the parliamentary constituency.
Norlela added that in Malaysia it is natural that allocations will only be given to politicians of the same party.
But in Teh's case, the beleaguered DAP state assemblyman had declared that he was quiting the party, hence the possibility of him being barred from utilizing the fund.
"As long as the people are not affected it shouldn't be a problem," she said, adding that Teh should not have publicly declared his intention to quit the party.
Last year, Teh was also barred from handling the RM700 one-off payment to flood victims in his area.
When contacted, Penang Opposition leader Datuk Jahara Hamid, blasted the state government for not preaching what they preach, saying that freedom of speech in their administration was not upheld by punishing Teh.
She said the DAP-led state government doesn't respect the people's mandate when they decided not to allocate the funds to Teh.
"They always said that freedom of speech is allowed in their party but what they did against Teh is unacceptable."
She claimed that this also showed that DAP under Lim was practicing an iron fist rule.