GEORGE TOWN: The Sungai Lembu illegal factory is about an issue, not politics or political parties, said Penanti assemblyman Dr Norlela Ariffin.
In a Facebook live post, the embattled PKR said she had actively raised the Sungai Lembu illegal factory as it was her job as an assemblyman.
"First and foremost I am not the authority with enforcement power.
"I am a citizen, a normal person, who is a representative of the people.
"I was elected by Penanti people to bring up their issues and that is my role.
"It is not political or to create and issue," she said.
She said she had first raised the Sungai Lembu issue after getting complaints during Chinese New Year in 2015.
"I went for a visit to the residents’ houses and they told me their grouses, which also included complaints about flash floods caused by a massive hill clearing," she said
She said at that time there were also another issue about two illegal factories, which she had also raised.
"This is a complaint by the people which I reported to the authority and raised in the state assembly sitting and district action committee," she said.
She asked if she was being punished for raising the problems of the people.
"Are you going to punish me for raising the issue on behalf of my people as an elected representative?
"Am I being punished and accused of being a BN mole?
"This is not true.
"This is only about complaints by the people but now all my team mates are by angry and feel I should not have fight for this.
"So what is the use of an elected representative," she said.
She added she was not purposely fighting the government but simply wanted to ensure the company comply with the conditions set by authorities.
She said when she got the 18-page petition by the resident of Sungai Lembu with their complaints about the factory this year May, she realised that people were still against the factory even though she had raised the issue to various authorities.
"The resident in Sungai Lembu are normal villagers but went through the effort to collect signature and do a petition," she said.
She said it was not right to make this into a racial issue as the residents were mostly Chinese.
"They are all Chinese so it's not right to say that I as a Malay is against a Chinese factory.
"That has nothing to do with race," she said.