Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu showing a termination letter sent to his service centre assistant. — Picture by Opalyn Mok

GEORGE TOWN, Jan 25 — Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu has appealed to the Penang state government to reinstate his service centre assistants until the 14th general elections.

Teh’s five assistants, who are employed under contract with the state government, have received termination letters that go into effect on February 18.

“Please let the five continue as service centre assistants as they are serving the people of Tanjung Bungah, I really hope the state government will reconsider this decision,” he said in a press conference at his service centre here.

He said the five assistants were shocked to receive the termination letters dated January 19 as they have families to feed and it is near Chinese New Year.

“Their contracts are until the end of May so the state should at least let them continue until then or when Parliament is dissolved,” he said.

He said the five, of whom two are DAP branch leaders and two from PKR, can be asked to report to his successor.

“They can transition smoothly to my successor so that they can continue working instead of being terminated in this manner,” he said.

“They did not do anything wrong, they have been doing their jobs, serving the Tanjung Bungah people, organising events here,” he added.

Teh will be writing to the state government to appeal for his five assistants to be reinstated until the elections.

The five assistants will also be writing appeal letters to the state government.

Teh said he had expected the state government to treat him differently after he announced his decision to resign from DAP at the end of his term.

“I was treated like the state opposition when I don’t consider myself as the opposition,” he said.

He said the state should look at uniting to serve the people instead of “dividing” in such a manner.

“If we can unite to serve the people, that would be the best but I respect their decision as the ruling party, they have absolute power but I want to remind them that absolute power can have absolute abuse of power,” he said.

He said it is now up to the public to judge the Pakatan Harapan state government on what they practise as opposed to what they preached.

Currently, all state programmes are no longer managed by Teh’s service centre including the senior citizens appreciation programme.

Teh said all programmes have been shifted to Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari’s service centre.

He said he will keep his service centre open until the rental contract ends in March.

“By then, maybe we have to close down unless the landlord agrees to rent it to me on a monthly basis instead of on a contract basis,” he said.

Earlier this month, Teh was told that he could no longer apply for funds from his assemblyman allocation of RM200,000 per year because of his decision to leave DAP.