THE Sarawak government’s barring of state-appointed community leaders and tribal headmen from attending any event by the federal government and its politicians is not new, according to a longhouse headman in Saratok.

“The directive has been there for a long time though it’s only a verbal one.

“I believe it became a written one when some ambiguity arose after Pakatan Harapan took over the federal government,” the Iban headman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Saratok, a district in central Sarawak and about 213km from Kuching, now has PKR’s Ali Biju as their MP.

The constituency and the largest town there also bear the same name.

The headman said when Biju called for a meeting of all the community leaders and longhouse headmen in the constituency recently, many were in a quandary on what to do.

“Maybe that’s one of the reasons why this directive became written.”

The directive, which The Malaysian Insight reported today, came in a memo dated October 11 from the State Secretary Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani that was issued to residents (heads of administration) of the state’s 12 administrative divisions.

The reason is purportedly to keep community headmen “neutral and away from politics”.

The memo stated that where there was doubt, the heads were to refer to their residents for clarification.

“I have no problems with the directive. It had never hampered me in discharging my duty. Don’t take the allowance with one hand and then whack the government that pays the allowance with the other,” the Saratok longhouse headman said.

He said since they are paid by the state government and not Putrajaya, then it is only proper they adhere to the directive of their paymaster.

DAP’s Pending assemblyman Violet Yong slammed the directive as being “childish”, “very irresponsible” and a move to “deny community leaders their right to execute their duties freely”.

She said community leaders are the intermediary between the people and the government and such a directive will put them in a difficult situation.

The headman who did not want to be named disagreed, saying there is nothing to stop their MP or opposition politicians from coming over to their longhouse.

He said if Biju would “always be welcome” if he were to come to his longhouse to meet the people there and have a chit chat, including on politics.

“Even those from PAS can come and ‘berandau’ (Iban for chit chat). But if they come for a membership drive or want to convert people, I can use my authority as the headman to tell them to leave if their actions create dissension and uneasiness in the longhouse.” – October 19, 2018.