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POLITICIANS from the state government have for decades meddled in the selection of community chiefs in Sarawak, PKR said today.
The Sarawak Community Chiefs and Headmen Ordinance 2004 is full of loopholes that have allowed politicians, such as assemblymen, to dictate the appointment of community chiefs, said Sarawak PKR chairman Roland Engan.
"The appointment of community chiefs is under the jurisdiction of the Resident Office in each division in Sarawak," he said.
"However, it is a known fact that state government wakil rakyat have interfered in the selection process by planting their choice of community chiefs.
"It is time to revamp the whole structure relating to the appointment of community chiefs in Sarawak.
"The grassroots must be given the right to elect who they want as their head to represent them."
Roland was responding to Progressive Democratic Party president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, who made a similar claim yesterday of polical meddling.
Tiong said there was political interference in the appointment of community chiefs in residential areas, villages, and longhouses.
He had warned councillors and politicians to stop meddling in the affairs of the grassroots communities, who have the right to choose their own tuai rumah (longhouse chief) and ketua kampung (village chief).
Tiong, who is the Bintulu MP and Dudong assemblyman, said that if necessary, he would bring the matter up with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Sarawak has about 6,000 longhouses in the rural districts as well as tens of thousands of vollages and residential estates in semi-rural and urban districts. – June 6, 2024.