Gerakan continues to defend embattled PKR Penanti assemblyperson Norlela Ariffin despite being told to mind its own business.

This time, Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng expressed regret with Pakatan Harapan's supporters lashing out at Norlela over the Sungai Lembu illegal factory issue.

"I am shocked and angered when she wrote that some of these people even issued threats against her which led her to make a police report," he said in a statement.

"This reminds me of the hell-notes and threatening letters that my colleagues and I received when I asked Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to come clean on his bungalow scandal," he added.

On Aug 11, state exco member Phee Boon Poh was detained by the MACC for three days for issuing letters to the Seberang Perai Municipal Council to halt action against the factory pending a state policy to legitimise illegal businesses, premises and places of worship.

Also arrested were the factory's owners.

Norlela had raised the health risk posed by the factory to residents in 2015 but Harapan's supporters blamed her for the arrests after she remarked "Thank you, MACC" in her Facebook post.

The PKR MP denied she was responsible for Phee's arrest, saying she was merely doing her job as an elected representative.

However, in a meeting which she attended with Phee on May 6 that year, it was reported that the Department of Environment found no pollutants emitting from the factory.

Minutes of that meeting revealed recommendations that a compound is imposed, failing which court action be taken against the factory's owners.

Meanwhile, Liang said threats such as those directed at Norlela and himself tend to surface when DAP is accused of wrongdoing or if someone speaks out against the party.

Describing it as "political gangsterism", Liang claimed that nobody from DAP had condemned the threats made against Norlela or on himself.

"On top of the crude and frequent name-calling and insulting language of top DAP leaders which encourage their supporters to do the same, by remaining silent on the threats, DAP is implicitly encouraging such behaviour.

"I condemn such political intimidation and gangster behaviour. It has no place in politics," he said.