Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah
KUCHING: All longhouse chieftains or ‘Tuai Rumahs’ in particular are duly elected by their respective charges, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
“There is no such norm as appointed longhouse chiefs in this modern era – be it hereditary from father to son or picked by the powers that be. Nowadays even women can get elected as ‘Tuai Rumahs’,” he told The Borneo Post.
Only community leaders in the form of Temenggong, Pemanca and Penghulu are appointed by the Sarawak government and they are paid salaries and given proper offices, he pointed out.
As far as the Iban community is concerned, Uggah said longhouse residents would elect their heads and there should have been a form of consensus on how to go about it.
Sometimes they would even use elections by a ‘show of hands’ if agreeable by the residents, he added.
After the Tuai Rumah is elected, the secretary of the longhouse development and security committee (JKKK) will submit his or her name to the district office and these duly elected Tuai Rumah are paid allowances.
When asked if he could comment on the claims made by Works Ministers Baru Bian that only democratically elected Tuai Rumahs would be able to receive allowances by Pakatan Harapan federal government, Uggah said he was not sure.
“However, Baru will need to find out from the District Offices on who are elected currently as Tuai Rumah,” said Uggah.
“Nevertheless the Sarawak government is paying the allowances of these Tuai Rumah,” he added.
Uggah guided that there is currently already circular in May 2018 that indicates that the Sarawak government is paying Tuai Rumah their allowances.
The allowances were continued by the state after the PH Federal government had issued a circular to terminate them.
In a press statement today, Baru said only democratically elected community leaders can receive salaries from federal government starting next year.
He stated that the Federal government has been allocating budgets for the payment of allowances and salaries for all the community leaders throughout Malaysia through the Rural Development Ministry.
In Sarawak, the total amount of budget disbursed when evened out, comes to about 70 per cent of each individual community leader’s salary, he said.
“For next year, the PH federal government has agreed to continue this practice for Sarawak despite it not being under a PH state government. RM35 million has been allocated for this purpose and will be tabled in the upcoming Budget 2019.
“Nevertheless, the PH Federal Government wants to make it very clear that the budgetary support allocated by the PH Federal Government to the GPS government can only be paid by the Sarawak GPS government to those community leaders who have been democratically elected by the longhouse or village residents,” Baru stressed.
“Current community leaders like ‘Tuai Rumahs’ or ‘Headmen’ who were not democratically elected by their longhouse residents but were unilaterally and politically appointed by politicians and GPS YBs against the wishes of the longhouse residents cannot receive the 70 per cent portion from the PH Federal government allocation.
“I want to make this crystal clear. Longhouse residents may make statutory declarations to report to the Ministry if the GPS government continues using Federal funds to pay politically appointed Tuai Rumahs,” he declared.