Darell to follow up on delay of appointing community leaders

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Darell (left) and his Special Officer Albert Chin (second from left) listening to the complaints from residents in Kampung Hungab about drainage problems.

PENAMPANG: Member of Parliament for Penampang, Darell Leiking, will be following up with the State Government on the issue of appointment of district councillors, village heads and chairmen of Village Community Management Council (MPKK) formerly known as Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK).

The International Trade and Industry Minister said the delay in appointing the village and JKKK chiefs had raised concerns among the people.

“The people are asking me about the appointment of the MPKK and ketua kampung and councillors. So I have to ask the Chief Minister what is wrong. It’s been four months (since the state government was formed) it can’t be too long or else it will become a problem,” said Darell when launching a gotong royong initiated by the Penampang parliamentary office in Kampung Hungab here yesterday.

For instance, he pointed out councillors are needed to make decisions on the District Council’s development plans while at the village level, villagers do not know who to go to when they have problems or issues.

“Like in the case of marriages or engagements in the KadazanDusun community … some cultures may be different but for the KadazanDusun, the ketua kampung makes the arrangement and witnesses the solemnization of a marriage in the kampung,” he pointed out.

The people, he stressed, would not want to be made to wait, before adding, “But I agree that we need to be careful in who we appoint to hold these posts, maybe scrutinising the candidates is one of the reasons for the delay in the appointment.

“However the people want to know and I cannot give them the answer. I would like to know as well. I am in the Federal Government but this is (also) my government so I want to be able to give the people an answer. I know the government means well but the problem is the people cannot wait to know,” he said.

Meanwhile in the program itself, Darell said the objective was to reignite the culture of keeping our surroundings clean.

This, he said, was something that we had been taught to do since we were small but sometime we forgot to do it.

Take the Japanese for example, they have this culture ingrained in them from when they were young, that they need to pick up after themselves and keep the cleanliness, he added.

“Let’s challenge ourselves to keep our surroundings clean and try to sustain it. We need to reignite what is already in us and tell ourselves ‘I want my surroundings and my kampung to be clean,” said Darell.

He also spent part of the morning listening to the issues affecting the residents in Kampung Hungab and gave his assurance that he would try his best to resolve them.