Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas
KUCHING (Aug 7): Sarawak will see a surge in the number of ‘ketua kaum’, ‘tuai rumah’ and ‘kapitan’ following the approval of new Village Security and Development Committees (JKKK).
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the state cabinet had just approved about 1,064 new JKKK of the Malay, Dayak, Chinese and other communities in Sarawak.
He said with the new additions, there would be about 7000 JKKKs throughout the state.
The JKKK in Sarawak are normally headed by the KK (ketua kaum), who are paid RM900 in monthly allowance.
Uggah said the allowance of all KKs in Sarawak was now fully paid by the federal government.
“We are grateful that the Perikan Nasional (PN) government has agreed to pay in full the JKKK chairmen’s allowance. The federal government pays the salary while the appointment of KK is by the state government.
“We have the mechanism to appoint them. JKKK has been an established system,” he told reporters after the launch of community policing programme at Wisma Bapa Malaysia today.
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had decided to reduce allowance of the chairman of JKKK to RM500 from RM900. However, the state government decided to maintain the RM900 monthly allowance by topping to RM400 for each chairman.
Uggah said the PN federal government had also allowed Sarawak to maintain its JKKK system.
“Both the PH and PN government had wanted us to change to village community management council (MPKK), but we don’t want to.
“Why should we change an established system that had been used all these while? The PN government, however, allowed us to keep our own system,” he said.