Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has retracted parts of his speech made last week in which he urged think-tank Penang Institute not to "bite the hand that feeds you".

This follows a Bernama report on the June 28 speech, which was published yesterday, that the national news agency titled as 'Guan Eng warns Penang think- tank over safeguarding state government image'.

Lim said in a statement today: "I would therefore withdraw all references to the English simile of 'biting the hand that feeds you' or 'barking' and replace them with 'not showing disloyalty to the state government but giving members the right to dissent and make such differences publicly'."

He also said that his reference to the Penang Institute as a "watchdog" was misconstrued by those "with limited understanding of the English language".

The Bernama report yesterday said the chief minister had warned the think-tank not to tarnish the image of the state government, which funds it.

The agency quoted Lim as saying: "I may understand when you say that one cannot bite the hand that feeds you. But I think you should allow some barking."

The report said some parties had viewed Lim's use of the term "bite" and "bark" negatively, but included his defence that he did not mean to disrespect the Penang Institute.

Lim said the Bernama report sought to create a mountain out of a molehill or create contreversy to distract the public from issues such as 1MDB, the goods and services tax (GST) and the RM2.6 billion donation scandal.