PUTRAJAYA’S plan to appoint its own preferred community leaders in Sarawak will only be disruptive to the stability, harmony and solidarity of state’s rural villages and longhouses, Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas said.

Joining the chorus condemning the federal government’s plan, Uggah said having two longhouse chiefs will only wreck the harmony and solidarity of the more than 5,000 longhouses, rural villages and settlements.

“It also reflected the ignorance of outsiders of the system long practised by the Sarawak government in appointing these grassroots leaders,” Uggah said in response to Deputy Rural Development Minister Sivarasa Rasiah’s announcement last night that the federal cabinet had given the green light for the rural development ministry to appoint community leaders in the state.

In a statement released late this afternoon, Uggah said having two community chiefs, one appointed by the state and the other by the federal government had never happened before “and I hope will not happen soon”.

“We have our own standard operating procedure in appointing our ketua kaum and ketua masyarakat. We are very comfortable with it.

“This system has worked very well for the state government, the people at large and the rural communities in particular,” Uggah said.

Brushing aside Pakatan Harapan claims that the appointments in Sarawak were politically biased, Uggah said the state government “listened to voices on the ground for the recommendation of the candidates”.

He also took a swipe at Sivarasa, telling him that he “should have made efforts to understand our system”, which may be different from those practised in the peninsular.

He reminded Sivarasa that the PH federal government had reduced the monthly allowance of each longhouse, village chiefs and community kapitans “to a mere RM500 per person monthly from RM900”.

“The state government then took it upon itself to pay RM400 extra in order to top it up to RM900,” Uggah said.

Sivarasa last night said the rural development ministry had the right to appoint the community leaders because the federal government paid their salaries.

Previously, Sarawak’s other deputy chief minister James Masing accused the federal government of putting in place a divide and rule policy. – September 16, 2019.