SARAWAK Pakatan Harapan grassroots leaders say PH-leaning community leaders are not only threatened by the state government for participating in PH-organised events, they also have had their monthly allowance frozen.

The Borneo Post reported PKR Kanowit chairman George Chen as saying that five longhouse chiefs in the district on the banks of Sungai Rajang either had their allowances deducted or were removed from their position.

Chen said a longhouse chief from Nanga Ngungun was axed from his job over his alleged help to PKR Kanowit deputy chairman Thomas Laja in the 2013 general election.

However, he admitted one of the allegedly dismissed longhouse headmen had been carrying out the duty and responsibility of a “tuai rumah” for nearly 20 years without being officially appointed by the state government.

These five and other pro-PH headmen and community leaders in the district, Chen said, are asking PKR state chief Baru Bian to intercede on their behalf.

“They are now putting their hope on the works minister to assist them.”

Sarawak DAP deputy chairman David Wong, speaking at the same press conference, said the non-payment of allowances to the community leaders and headmen contravened the Community Chiefs and Headmen Ordinance 2004.

Wong said the non-payment is “getting serious”.

“I don’t know how many, but last Saturday, more than 20 people from Selangau – another district in the Sibu division – came to the DAP Sibu office.

“Many of these headmen, whose appointments had been approved by the state government, have yet to receive payments due to them,” he said.

The Pelawan assemblyman demanded that Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg explain why the headmen were not paid their due allowance and why the appointments of a few others were nullified.

Last October, the state government issued a directive that it’s appointed community leaders and village headmen were barred from immediate effect from attending any PH federal government organised functions.

The directive was contained in a memo dated October 11 from State Secretary Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani to residents (heads of administration) of the state’s 12 administrative divisions.

State PH chief Chong Chieng Jen had since said DAP will provide free legal services in filing for a judicial review of the order to any community leader or headman who wants to challenge the state government’s directive.

Chong said DAP was willing to give legal assistance for free as the directive was “unconstitutional, unreasonable, irrational and even insulting” as it the treated community leaders like schoolchildren.

The Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs also said the community leaders could not be considered as civil servants even though they receive allowances monthly from the state government.

Chong also said since his appointment as a deputy minister, he had encountered two instances where the community leaders had been directed by the resident’s office not to attend functions organise by his ministry. – December 12, 2018.