If indeed a PKR assemblyperson has a hand in Saturday’s protest against Chief Minister Saudara Lim Guan Eng, by a group of people claiming to representing the Indian community, PKR should take stern action against the lawmaker.

Saturday’s protest, led by Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia's national adviser, N Ganesan, is nothing but an attempt to discredit the Penang Pakatan government, to feed BN an issue to be used in the Kajang by-election. Ganesan, the mastermind behind the splinter Hindraf group’s cooperation with Umno-BN in the last general election, has proved once again that he is a worthy servant of Umno’s interests.

Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia, by claiming to be representing the majority of Indians in Malaysia, managed to bargain for a deputy minister’s post after the election. However, after eight months, the relationship soured as the BN never allocated the funds as promised earlier. The silver lining in the resignation of P Waythamoorthy as a deputy minister is the fact that he resigned because of lack of funds as promised and not the community’s interests.

However, people like Ganesan apparently still chose to remain in a good relationship with the Umno-BN, staging these kind of protest dramas to give BN an upper hand among ethnic Indian voters in the upcoming Kajang by-election.

Ganesan and gang failed to remember that people like him are no longer enjoying the trust of the community, after having betrayed the community by joining hand with the very same regime that discriminated against and sidelined the Indians for the past five decades in this country. Ganesan and Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia are nothing but a spent force in that sense.

Meanwhile, I urge the PKR leadership, especially the president, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, to immediately investigate the allegation of a PKR assemblyperson’s hand in the organising of the protest against the Penang Pakatan government. The protest was not only aimed at discrediting the chief minister and Penang Pakatan government, but also to sabotage Pakatan’s chances in the Kajang by-election, where the president herself is contesting the seat.

We have seen in the past how political frogs like former Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng and former Bayan Baru MP Zaharain Hashim planned their move to quit PKR by attacking Chief Minister Lim first. We don’t want such situations to recurn.

If there’s a basis in the allegations that PKR’s Batu Uban assemblyperson has a hand in Saturday’s protest, the PKR leadership should take immediate action, considering past experience and to avoid any misunderstanding between DAP and PKR comrades in the state of Penang.

SATEES MUNIANDY is Dapsy national research and development bureau chief, Penang Dapsy assistant secretary, and a Majlis Perbandaran Seberang Perai councillor.