Teh appeals against termination of staff

GEORGE TOWN: Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu is appealing to the state government to reconsider the termination of his five service centre assistants.

Describing the move as unwise, the DAP assemblyman said he foresaw it after announcing he would leave DAP last October.

“I am being treated as the opposition when I don’t consider myself as an opposition.

“I respect the decision as they have the absolute power, but they must remember with absolute power, there can also be absolute abuse of power,” he added.

He urged that the employees be allowed to serve till the end of their contracts in May or until Parliament is dissolved.

“The letters were served in such a short notice that they were caught off guard,” he told a press conference at his service centre in Tanjung Bungah yesterday.

He said his assistants, who comprise two DAP veteran leaders and PKR members and a graduate, had served for almost seven years and people in the constituency knew them well.

He said they received the termination letters from the human resource management division of the state secretariat on Jan 19.

The termination was effective on Feb 18.

The termination comes a week after Teh was barred from utilising his RM200,000 allocation for his state constituency.

On Jan 18, Teh said he received a copy of a letter issued by the northeast district officer to all Village Security and Development Committees (JKKKs) in his constituency to refer to Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari from Jan 15 for allocations.

Last month, he was barred from verifying applications from flood victims for the one-off RM700 aid given by the state government.

I respect the decision as they have the absolute power, but they must remember with absolute power, there can also be absolute abuse of power. Teh Yee Cheu