LETTER | The Penang Institute founded twenty years ago in 1997 is fully funded by the DAP Penang state government using tax-payers' money.

Its stated goal as per the website is to secure Penang’s reputation as an intellectual hub and as the cultural capital of the country, and to enhance Penang’s reputation in Asean and beyond.

However, the Penang Institute seems to have transformed into nothing more than a political propaganda machine under the DAP;s rule

In Malaysiakini today, Wong Chin Huat who gave his title as "head of the political studies programme at Penang Institute", wrote a highly speculative comment piece full with political rhetoric that claimed that caretaker Najib Abdul Razak's actions belie his fear of a Malay tsunami.  

He claims that Najib was the one who deregistered Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Bersatu party even though it was the action of the Registrar of Societies (ROS) acting based on its rules as well as the constitution of Bersatu itself.

To recap, Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin himself whom on March 16 had admitted that it will not be able to meet requests as per ROS' letter which had reached Bersatu more than two weeks earlier on Feb 28.

Since it's formation, Malaysians were continually updated on a stream of Bersatu founders, leaders and members who had left the party saying the party was poorly funded, poorly organized and was a party based on cronyism.

A shining example of Bersatu's lack of organisation and seriousness in running a proper political party is the example of the removal of Anina Saadudin as the head of their Woman's wing (Srikandi) with the excuse that the Srikandi wing was never formally formed despite the Bersatu's leadership having formally announced her as the Srikandi head.

Chin Huat should also ask himself the question that if Bersatu was actually a serious party, why is it that have never held a party election since they were formed in the year 2016?

Who elected Mahathir as chairperson, Muhyiddin as president and Mahathir's son as deputy president?

All evidence points that to the fact that Bersatu got itself into this deregistration problem due to its own actions (or inaction) and they have no one else to blame.

I would also stress that it was Najib's government that saw Bersatu being allowed to register itself as a political party within 30 days of their application being submitted in September 2016.

Previously under Mahathir's government, this situation would have been unthinkable and you could probably be waiting years for such an application to be even compressed.

So, if the purpose was to hamper Mahathir and if ROS truly took instructions from Najib then why even allow Bersatu to be registered in the first place?

To be accurate, Bersatu is not completely deregistered but is only suspended as ROS had given them 30 days more to submit the missing documents required.

However, Bersatu will unlikely do this as they simply had no intention to use their own logo in the coming general elections with the same reasoning that DAP is not using their rocket logo this time around.

All the parties of Pakatan Harapan had agreed to use one common logo and it wouldn't have been Amanah or Bersatu's logo since DAP would never want to be associated with an Islamic or ultra-Malay party logos respectively - especially since both logos are new and unfamiliar to most voters.

That leaves the only logical choice of PKR's logo.

Again I stress, even if you allow Bersatu to use their logo to contest in GE14, they will not use it.

For some reasons, the supposedly intellectual Chin Huat seems to have missed out all the above points.

Just a short time ago, Chin Huat and for that matter, DAP, was one of Perkasa's strongest critics but today he does not protest that  Mahathir who was Perkasa patron is now his political masters' boss or that the deputy president of Perkasa is also now the vice-president of Bersatu.

Similarly, former Perkasa Selangor chairperson Abu Bakar Yahaya is the current Bersatu Selangor chief and former Perkasa leader Annuar Abdul Hamid is the Bersatu Kedah deputy chief.

To make it worse, the head of Perkasa Penang Marzuki Yahya is now the head of Bersatu Penang and now stands shoulder to shoulder with DAP Penang as equal partners.

Chin Huat and DAP seem to no longer have any problem with these Perkasa leaders who were famous for calling non-Malays as pendatang and had wanted to burn the bible just years ago.

Integrity and principles are thrown out of the window in DAP's greed for political power.

It was only three weeks ago that Chin Huat made headlines when he broke the Parliament embargo and revealed the redelineation report.

This led to DAP's defacto head Lim Kit Siang saying Chin Huat's action reminded Kit Siang of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1930s and that DAP will provide a team of four lawyer-MPs to Chin Huat for breaking the law.

No mention was made that Chin Huat only revealed the report just 24 hours earlier than when Parliament was going to reveal it or that the fine for breaking this embargo is a just RM1,000.

It seems that DAP revels in drama and sensationalism.

Today, Chin Huat shows that he is not neutral and was not speaking as an academician despite being signed off as an employee of the tax-payer funded Penang Institute when he ended his comment piece by saying:

"Politics is full of unintended consequences. Let’s defy all odds and make an 85 percent turnout happen, like we did in 2013. This time, let’s show Najib what a Malaysian tsunami – not just a Malay tsunami – looks like."

But are we surprised that Chin Huat is not apolitical?

On June 28, 2016, caretaker Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng addressed the Penang Institute and reminded them to “bear in mind that you are working for the institute that is funded by the state government”.

Guan Eng, who is also the DAP secretary-general, said to them: “I may understand when you say that one cannot bite the hand that feeds you. But I think you should allow some barking,”

Could it be that Chin Huat had taken Guan Eng's command to heart to bark loudly?

It is best that Chin Huat stops tarnishing the name of the Penang Institute. He should resign and enter politics full-time if that is what he wants to do.

Alternatively, Guan Eng should sack Chin Huat since I am sure that Guan Eng does not want DAP to be accused of abusing tax-payers' money to turn the decades-old Penang Institute into a political propaganda mill.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.