I make this statement is in response to Dr Lim Mah Hui's statement published on Sept 20, 2016.

First of all, you, Dr Lim Mah Hui, are my colleague on the Penang Island City Council and I had the utmost respect for you as an internationally renowned academician when I first joined the council back in 2013.

As far as disagreements with yourself during council policy debates, I had always viewed them as constructive as even if the council is not elected, we could allow a dissenting voice within our ranks. This, I believe, is crucial in a democratic state that we live in.

Then, whenever members of the Penang state government would then try to reply and point out certain inaccuracies within your allegations, your colleagues would all suddenly jump on the bandwagon and accuse the administration of vilifying you.

It is as if there is the perception that the freedom of speech is only available to yourself and your like-minded colleagues and not the government of the day. With that kind of reaction, can you blame any of your colleagues for feeling that respect has become one-sided?

I have always had a good working relationship with the people at Buletin Mutiara and for you to question their integrity is really disappointing. You said: "In early September, I wrote a reply to the Buletin responding to YB Jagdeep’s urging for me to answer to the Penang people. Until today, the Buletin has not seen it fit to publish my reply.

"I had spoken to the senior management of the Buletin and requested a right to reply - an editorial policy practised by reputable newspapers. In fact, the chief minister of Penang has rightly criticised and berated newspapers for not practising this policy of right of reply and has even prohibited some news agencies from covering state and local councils events for this reason."

After doing some checking, I had found out that you scolded Miss Yap Lee Ying who is the director in charge of Buletin Mutiara in a threatening manner. To publish your letter under such circumstances would be publishing under duress.

I know that Buletin Mutiara does not and will not submit to threats from a bully, especially to a lady like Miss Yap who will stand up for her dignity. Furthermore, Buletin Mutiara will not publish statements that misrepresent or do not address the issue raised by Jagdeep Singh Deo.

'You acted like a bully'

You have also acted like a bully towards the general staff in MBPP, behaving in a harsh and disparaging manner just because you are both a councillor and a learned academician. And you have also refused to clarify false reports attributed to yourself in The Star that are unfavourable to the state government.

Even though you never said it, you also said you would not clarify as this is not your mistake, but the mistake of the press that wrongly reported it. Clearly, there are double standards at play here as you are focusing your criticisms on Buletin Mutiara but not on BN media like The Star.

As far as the Transport Master Plan (TMP) is concerned, it is still a work in progress as approval in principle is being sought from the federal government. Once such approval in principle is obtained, then the detailed plan will be worked out with the relevant authorities, including Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (Spad) or the Department of Environment (DOE).

You are barking up the wrong tree when you should be asking the federal government why the approval in principle is not granted for the TMP, instead of continuously trying to sabotage the TMP.

I am also wondering why are most of the criticisms by you and your colleagues largely directed at the Penang state government and not the federal government? You know, the same federal government that centralised powers into Putrajaya also severely limited the powers of the state governments.

The same one who has denied Penang the development it needs time and again. The same one who is suppressing and oppressing dissent through force and does not listen or bother to debate with civil society.

You and your colleagues do know that you are playing right into the hands of the BN, don't you? The same BN that made Penang into a mess that we had to clean up, since 2008.

You should be standing with us in our effort to not only bring Penang forward but to liberate the rest of Malaysia as well. Where are you when the real battles are being fought?

CHRIS LEE CHUN KIT is a city councillor with the Penang Island City Council, representing the DAP.