MIRI: The Ministry of Local government and Housing has a new policy of not allowing community leaders to serve as councillors.
Assistant Minister of Local Government Datu Dr Penguang Manggil said most of cases involving community leaders being appointed as councillors occurred in rural areas.
Datu Dr Penguang Manggil
“The new policy does not allow community leaders such as village headmen, longhouse chief, penghulu, kapitan and others to take the responsibility as councillors. If there is any, we are going to replace them with new faces.
“We want the councillors to give their total commitment in order to meet the people’s high expectation on the council services,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Commenting on the new line-up for the councillors, Penguang said most of the chairmanship posts have been retained except Sibu Municipal Council (SMC), which would seen a new face to take over.
“Most of them (chairmen) will retain their posts, while for the SMC, let the chief minister announce the new person to lead it.”
However, he said the appointment of the new councillors would not include Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) and Kuching South City Council (MBKS) because their councillors’ term will only expire on August 31.
He added there would be many new faces from four political parties under Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) – Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).
The appointment of councillors is limited to the four component parties. Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), formerly known as United People Party (UPP), has been dropped from the list.
Penguang said: “The people today demand only those who are experts, knowledgeable and with experience can serve the community.
“In the old days, there were community leaders serving in the council who could not even read and write.
“The situation is different now. With advancement in communication technology and the rapid growth of social media demand us to have a pool of people who are experts and intelligent in handling the community issues effectively.”