Baru Bian
KUCHING: Starting next year, only democratically elected ‘Tuai Rumahs’ or community leaders will be able to receive the 70 per cent portion of their salaries from the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.
In statement today, Minister of Works Baru Bian 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.
“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.