KUCHING, April 20: No political party should regard the title of community leader as their party’s “asset” nor should they use the membership in their party as a pre-condition for appointment of a community leader.
Bintulu MP Dato Sri Tiong King Sing also warned that community leaders who abuse their appointments and fail to perform their duties effectively without political affiliation should have their titles revoked and replaced.
“Unfortunately, some parties expect these office bearers to sit in their service centres permanently to exploit the system.
“These unhealthy practices have attracted complaints from many people, including those well-performing leaders that may be discarded due to the wrong political party affiliation.
“As a six-term Bintulu MP, I cannot stand to see such an abuse of the appointment of community leaders within my constituency, which has become too politicised,” he said in a statement today.
Tiong, who is also Federal Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture has raised concerns about certain leaders using their area’s elected representative service centre for personal purposes, rather than serving the community without political affiliation during the Bintulu Selection Panel Sub-Committee meeting for community leaders and ethnic leaders at the District Office.
He said that these acts by certain parties have raised public suspicions that those parties are placing community leaders and ketua kaum in their service centres to act as their “party assets” in disguise.
“This deviates from the original intention of serving the people without political affiliation.
“The relevant people must follow procedures, including the fact that community leaders and ketua kaum must be present at the district offices to serve and not sit in elected representatives’ service centres,” he added.
Noting that similar situations have gone on for some time now in Bintulu or Sibu, Tiong said this will lead to more trouble later if the practice is not stopped.
“Many people have expressed their concerns to me, asking whether community leaders are serving the people or the elected representatives,” he said.
At the meeting, Tiong also mentioned that to ensure community leaders can perform at their best service performance, the authorities involved must add or reduce the number of community leaders according to the current population size of their respective areas.
“A community leader to serve too large an area would be counter productive. Re-organising service areas to a community leader would prevent them from being overwhelmed and affect their service quality, which would be a benefit to the people.
“Most importantly, the appointed community leader must put the well-being and rights of the people first, and not seek personal gain,” he stressed. — DayakDaily
