Several Penang Island City Council (MBPP) members have ganged up against their colleague Lim Mah Hui, urging him to apologise over his remark about car towing enforcement in Penang.

One of the members, Harvinder Singh, said as a councillor, Mah Hui should provide proper statistics about cars being towed for traffic violations.

“Unlike ordinary people, Mah Hui has access to full information as a councillor. It is not fair to enforcement officers when he provided the wrong figure about car towing; he should know that the numbers of cars towed is not one per month,” Harvinder said.

Mayor Patahiyah Ismail ( pix above, left ) had revealed that more than 17,000 cars had been clamped and more than 6,600 towed in 2015.

In the first two months of 2016, a total of 2,140 cars were clamped and 795 towed for traffic violations.

Mah Hui is currently in Australia and has vowed to back his claims with facts and figures.

Harvinder said the job of enforcement officers is not only to tow or clamp down on cars, but also to ensure smooth traffic flow.

He added that the main concern is to ensure clear traffic flow, especially during festivals.

“Mah Hui should apologise to Patahiyah, MBPP secretary Ang Aing Thye and all the enforcement officers over this matter,” said Harvinder, who heads the MBPP’s disciplinary committee.

He said Mah Hui had never approached the disciplinary committee to lodge his complaints if he had problems with any enforcement officer.

Mah Hui, who was appointed a councillor under the NGO quota, had complained about an enforcement staff being absent without leave for 12 days.

Harvinder said if Mah Hui had lodged a complaint, he would have opened a file on the officer concerned.

“The (disciplinary) committee meets every month for one and a half hours where councillors can raise any complaints they want,” he said.

“It is not right for Mah Hui to raise the issue direct to the chief minister (Lim Guan Eng) when there are proper channels for him to do so in this committee,” he added.

Damaging accusations

Another MBPP councillor Chris Lee said Guan Eng had offered Mah Hui the duty of overseeing the enforcement unit in the council.

“Mah Hui was empowered to take up the job and use the existing platform and system to achieve his goals but he turned it down,” he said.

“Why did he turn down the offer and yet criticise him (Guan Eng)? Mah Hui has failed in his job as a councillor by doing this,” Lee added.

Councillor Syerleena Abdul Rashid said Mah Hui’s accusations were very damaging to the council.

She said Mah Hui has held the councillor's post for many years and should have been aware of the proper channels to bring up his case against enforcement officers.

“For him to utter such remarks is counter-productive. I am sad to see someone like him do this,” said Syerleena.

Another MBPP member, Ong Ah Teong, urged Mah Hui to be “be a gentleman and apologise” for what he has done.