The Penang government was today grilled by reporters over its failure to allow PAS man Iszuree Ibrahim a hearing, before dropping him from Penang City Council (MPPP) sub-committees.

Failing to give a clear answer over the absence of a domestic inquiry, chief minister's political secretary Wong Hon Nai (left in picture below) finally claimed a hearing is not needed as Iszuree is not an elected representative.

Wong also said that he had also personally "advised" Iszuree to clarify the matter in the media.

This is following Iszuree's claim that his speech at the PAS muktamar was "misquoted" by Malaysiakini .

 

"However, no immediate clarification was forthcoming. He took a week to clarify his speech (in the media)," the Air Itam assemblyman said at a press conference today.

Wong also insisted that Iszuree was still a councillor and could attend full council meetings.

It is only that his budget allocation in the three sub-committees, from which he was dropped, were frozen.

Iszuree sits on the finance, planning and development, public health and cleanliness subcommittees and his term ends this December.

MPPP sought Iszuree's explanation via media

Meanwhile, MPPP council whip Harvinder Singh said that the council had called on Iszuree to clarify his speech before he was dropped from the sub-committees.

However, he admitted that it was done through a press conference.

Asked why the MPPP had not contacted Iszuree directly, he said it was because Iszuree "made the allegations via the media".

Harvinder led 19 MPPP councillors who submitted a petition to Wong calling for Iszuree's sacking over his remarks on the state's land policies.

Wong said he would be bringing the petition to the state executive meeting today.

MPPP council whip Harvinder Singh, who handed over the petition to Wong, defended the councillors’ decision to ask the state to act on Iszuree ( right) following his controversial speech.

Iszuree's speech was published in a Malaysiakini report headlined 'PAS delegate says pro-developer, like BN' on Sept 19 where he was alleged to have said that the state government was continuing policies left by the previous BN administration, which favoured developers.

He claims he was misquoted but Malaysiakini stands by the story.

Yesterday, he said, he had also sent a copy of his speech at the muktamar to CM Lim Guan Eng to clarify the matter but did not receive a response from the CM.

He also lamented that he was not given a hearing before dropped from the sub-committees, likening Penang to a "Mao Tze Tung" government.

Penang PAS also said that it has used all formal avenues to try to raise the issue of evicted Malay villagers in Penang, but even their July memorandum to Lim was unanswered.

PAS says meeting Lim as difficult as meeting Koh