PKR's Penanti assemblywoman Norlela Ariffin told Prime Minister Najib Razak not to “politicise her tears” when comparing which government was more cruel – Penang or Putrajaya.

"It is the federal government in Putrajaya which is cruel for blocking public infrastructure projects in Penang after 2008, after the opposition took over from BN," Norlela told Malaysiakini .

"It (Putrajaya) is worse because the federal government is led by Umno whose leaders are Muslims, while the areas which are in dire need of public infrastructure are Malay-populated areas.

"The people of Penang and the industries here toiled hard, but there is no allocation for the state in Najib's Budget 2016 even though Putrajaya takes RM6.5 billion from us in annual taxes," she said.

Norlela said she learnt that Putrajaya has also held back funds which the Seberang Perai Municipal Council needs to carry out its projects.

"Penang elected representatives are not like BN's. We are the check and balance of the state government and the executive.

"We are not like BN reps who would rubber-stamp every decision by the executive," she said.

Sincere appeal

She was referring to Najib, who, during his speech at the Umno AGM, insisted that the BN was not cruel as no lawmaker in the coalition's history had shed tears in the legislative assembly as Norlela had done last month.

Najib recalled that Norlela had done this when lamenting that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had ignored her complaints.

Norlela said her tears – which she shed during one of the sessions at the Penang legislative assembly which ended on Nov 20 – was a sincere appeal to the authorities to listen to the plight of her constituency.

She reacted in this manner because she did not get answers to her queries related to the problems in her constituency for about three years, Norlela said.

She had also lamented that six of her motions – related to issues involving her constituency – have been rejected by speaker Law Choo Kiang.

She said Lim and the state executive councillors could have prevented the (teary) incident if they gave her a hearing in those three years.

According to Norlela, after the incident, Lim had agreed to meet up with her to discuss her problems.

Lim had denied ignoring Penanti as the Penang Budget 2016 had allocated funds for Permatang Pauh, which covers Norlela's constituency.

However, the PKR assemblyperson said the funds were for projects in Seberang Jaya and Permatang Pasir, the other two seats under Permatang Pauh held by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.