Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is still seething with displeasure over the five PKR assemblypersons who abstained from voting down an Umno motion on the state’s reclamation projects.

Today, Lim said there must not be two PKRs in Penang, and the five must now make a stand to say who do they pledge allegiance to.

“Is it PKR whip Ong Chin Wen or Deputy Chief Minister I Rashid Hasnon?” Lim asked at a press conference today.

“We do not want two PKRs in Penang, we only recognise one, which is led by Rashid,” the DAP secretary-general said.

He said this when asked to comment on Rashid’s statement yesterday that there was no coup in the state PKR although the five have abstained from voting against the Umno motion at the state legislative assembly on Friday.

Lim had harsh words for them after they abstained from voting against Umno, saying there was “betrayal and mutiny” within PKR.

He also accused Ong ( photo ), the Bukit Tengah assemblyman, of planning a coup against Rashid.

The other four representatives are Cheah Kah Peng (Kebun Bunga), Lee Khai Loon (Machang Bubok), T Jayabalan (Batu Uban) and Norlela Ariffin (Penanti).

Ong has so far kept his silence on the entire episode, only saying after the state assembly on Friday that the five abstained from voting according to their conscience.

Rashid, PKR’s Pantai Jerejak assemblyperson, said the party allowed its assemblypersons to vote according to conscience on issues affecting the rakyat.

Lim said he was happy to read Rashid’s statement, as it meant that his (Lim’s) decision to only recognise the latter as DCM was accepted by PKR.

“But the question remains whether Ong, who led the other four to abstain their vote, accepts this.

“He should make a public statement that he accepts what Rashid says so that the incident at the state assembly last Friday will not recur, or else several questions abound.

“The five made the decision to abstain from voting without informing their leadership in Penang,” he said.

Lim said the five should have made known their decision to not vote against the Umno motion to the party’s state leadership. Currently, former deputy chief minister Mansor Othman is the state PKR chief.

Not informing the state leadership of such decisions, the PKR five have shown disrespect to their party leaders, he added.

“It also shows that the five are not a team with the Pakatan Harapan government in Penang.

“They must act like members of the team or else they are very irresponsible leaders,” he added.

Lost confidence in them

Lim said he has raised the matter of the five PKR assemblypersons at the state executive council meeting today, and the decision is that they remain as state representatives in their respective constituencies.

“But they have lost our confidence in them. I hope they will make their stand soon to restore our faith in them, so that we can be a team again.

“Without a proper stand, it also shows that PKR leaders who backed Rashid and voted against Umno in the state assembly were stabbed in the back.

“Even our assemblyperson Teh Yee Cheu made known his decision earlier - that he will be supporting Umno motion during the debate on the reclamation issue,” he said.

Teh has since apologised for his "mistake", and has quit his party post as organising secretary of the state DAP.