Penang Island City councillor (MBPP) Lim Mah Hui said he does not play politics, and will rise above it when dealing with the likes of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and other DAP leaders, following their barrage of criticisms against him.

Mah Hui is currently in the eye of the storm over a letter sent by Penang Forum, which he represents, to Unesco World Heritage Center in Paris requesting for an assessment of the Penang Transport Master Plan’s (TMP) impact on the George Town heritage site.

Mah Hui insisted that Penang Forum is not against the TMP, but is critical over a few points, and added that he is willing to speak up at the risk of losing his job.

He questioned if his colleagues in the MBPP were willing to do the same, and reminded that the first criterion to be a councillor is not so much your qualification or your allegiance to any political party.

“It is whether you are willing to speak out and risk losing your job. I put the question to the other municipal councillors, whether they will do it,” Mah Hui told a press conference in George Town today.

“For me, I have spoken out, if the CM wants to sack me from the council, he can do it but it wont stop me from speaking out,” Mah Hui added.

“In speaking out to preserve the heritage status of Penang, I have been falsely accused of trying to destroy it; nothing can be further from the truth.”

Accompanying Mah Hui at the press conference at the Penang Heritage Trust’s office were its president Lim Gaik Sing and Penang Forum members Anwar Fazal (photo, right) and Khoo Salma Nasution (photo, left).

Mah Hui’s response was based on a question if it was still tenable for him to hold state government posts after the criticisms levelled against him for his concerns over heritage issues in Penang.

The question was put to Mah Hui as he currently holds three state government posts including being a member of think-tank Penang Institute and an appointed member of the Penang Transport Council, which oversees transport issues including the TMP.

State government leaders insisted he had access to the authorities, and said they felt betrayed by his action of not consulting them before shooting the letter to Unesco on Jul 23.

DAP-NGO rift

The state leaders’ disparaging remarks against Mah Hui show the wide rift between DAP leaders and NGOs that are vocal against the Penang government’s projects like the TMP, which relies on reclamation projects as a financial model.

Representatives from George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI), the agency entrusted to preserve and protect the state’s heritage, and SRS Consortium, the project delivery partner of the proposed TMP, were also present at the event.

On Monday, GTWHI general manager Ang Ming Chee (photo) expressed shock that Penang Forum had sent such a letter to Unesco without informing her department or the National Heritage Department as it might put George Town at risk of losing its Unesco heritage status.

Asked if he would continue to hold dialogues with the state government and GTWHI, Mah Hui replied, “I am always open to dialogue; as I said, I have never hit back at those who criticised me."

He said he never labelled his fiercest critics – the chief minister, Ang or Bukit Bendera-cum-Penang Institute CEO Zairil Khir Johari – as “backstabbers”.

The three leaders had said Mah Hui was a backstabber, with Zairil going further to add that the veteran activist had hidden motives when he sent the letter to Unesco.

To this, Mah Hui said: “I have no hidden motives and I do not know what he was referring to."

“As I have never hit back at them, I am quite at a loss as to why they directed this uncalled-for barrage of criticisms and expletives against me; I stand firm on my own principles,” Mah Hui said.

“I have been called a liar eight times by the CM and I did not hit back at him, I continue to serve the people, I don't serve political leaders.

“I have spoken up in the MBPP, I have spoken in the Penang Transport Council and in the board of Penang Institute, sometimes they hear, most of the time, it falls on deaf ears.

“So I felt duty-bound to take my message to people, if that is treason, so be it,” said Mah Hui.