KUCHING, Oct 18: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) information chief Bobby William is disappointed with community leaders who had accepted appointments from political parties.
He opined that their actions violated the Community Chiefs and Headmen Ordinance 2004, where Section 8(1) (a), (b) and (c) state individuals who are appointed as Community Leaders or Ketua Kaum are prohibited from having a political party position and cannot be a co-chairman (in district council and division administration) and are forbidden to hold any profitable positions.
“What saddens our community leaders the most is that longhouse chieftains or ‘tuai rumah’ have failed to obey Section 8 of the ordinance. Conversely, politicians are active and active in the interest of some parties.
“Just look at Sibu. Most of the multiracial party-based parties such as Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) and United People’s Party (UPP) seem to fool and manipulate the ‘tuai rumah’ institution by leveraging and using them to gain political support from the Dayak community,” Bobby claimed in a statement.
He said it was made worse when the parties set up Bumiputera units and appointed ‘tuai rumah’ as the leaders of the rural native teams while remaining as members of these units, which is clearly against the law.
Bobby also commented that this might affect the community leaders as an institution in the state and affect the image and responsibility of other community leaders.
As such, he said PBDSB had decided to take the initiative to organise the Dayak Community Leaders Academy (Akademi Ketua Kaum Dayak). — DayakDaily
