Penang PAS delegate Iszuree Ibrahim, who recently courted controversy by reportedly attacking the state’s housing policy, may be removed from his position as a Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) councillor.

That is, if the full council which meets tomorrow tables a motion to sack him from his post, said Iszuree.

Iszuree said the proposed motion is based on a Malaysiakini report headlined ‘PAS delegate says Penang pro-developer, like BN’ published on Sept 19.

“It is unfair to ask for my removal based on this wrong report.

“I am disappointed and frustrated that my speech on development and eviction of villagers in the muktamar was misquoted by Malaysiakini ,” he said when contacted.

“The report is unfair to me and has led to prejudice against me, they (councillors) have attacked me based on what is not true,” he added.

In his speech, Iszuree ( left ) said he proposed that the Penang government formulate its own policies on developers who are prone to evict villagers without giving them proper compensation.

He added that he had urged that action be taken on the developers, not the state government.

He denied saying that the Penang government was like BN, as reported in Malaysiakini ’s headline.

He claimed he merely said that the current Penang government was still implementing policies left by BN, which are not pro-rakyat and should be changed.

He urged that the state include in its policies that developers must provide villagers with replacement units when they evict them from the land.

Iszuree denied attacking the Penang government’s housing policy, adding he only suggested that pro-rakyat policies be implemented and action taken on “rogue” developers because the council has the power to withhold the commencement of work licences from errant ones.

“This was necessary as developers still found loopholes in the state policies and bring their cases to court to drive out the villages from their land,” he said.

‘My proposal based on Pakatan’s principles’

“My propsal was based on Pakatan’s principles that the people’s voice was sacred (suara rakyat suara keramat).  This is not my voice,” he added.

“My proposals are based on people who have approached me with their housing or land problems since I became the state PAS bureau chief on land matters since 2010,” he stressed.

“These proposals are also similar to those stated in a memorandum submitted to the Penang government by PAS deputy president and state commissioner Mohamad Sabu in July,” he quipped.

In the Malaysiakini report, Iszuree was quoted as saying that villagers were being “slaughtered” in the courts by developers.

He was further quoted as saying that Pakatan Rakyat has “failed to create pro-rakyat policies and had instead used BN’s pro-developer policies when it comes to issues involving villages and developers”.

“Penang PAS stress the practise of turning a blind eye on the issue of development - especially in Penang involving villages over 30 years old - must stop,” he told delegates at the 60th party muktamar in Batu Pahat last week.

Bukit Bendera DAP Youth chief Haris Zuan Jaharudin ( right ) expressed shock, saying that Iszuree’s remarks were baseless, and that he had “slandered” the state government by saying it was like BN.

Haris Zuan described the PAS leader as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” (musuh dalam selimut), and chided him for not attacking Umno which has created such land crisis affecting the local villages.

The MPPP councillor then listed a series of measures taken by the Penang government to address the state’s housing problems.

“I have no problems with him wanting to gain popularity, but do not ever betray the friendship in Pakatan Rakyat by not telling the truth,” Haris Zuan had said.