UPKO wants election for village heads in Kadamaian constituency
KOTA BELUD: UPKO Kota Belud has proposed that an election should be held to elect a ketua kampung (village head) in all villages within the Kadamaian constituency in Kota Belud.
Its chief, Ewon Benedick, believed that such election would give democratic rights to the villagers to elect the ketua kampung of their choice whom they think can work towards strengthening the judicial and legal system of the natives in their village.
“Lately, I have been hearing complaints from residents in many villagers regarding the appointment of ketua kampung made by the district chief. Friends from PBS and PBRS Kadamaian have also expressed their disappointment over those appointments.
“These complaints have been discussed in our Barisan Nasional committee meeting. To me, the only acceptable solution to most interested parties is election for ketua kampung, just like how JKKK chairman is being elected,” he said.
“In the current situation where Kadamaian traditionally belongs to PBS, its elected representative is a pro-PBRS independent and the district chief is from Umno, too many questions were being asked on how appointment is being made. We cannot deny that some appointments made through the district chief were strongly objected to by villagers in the respective kampung,” he said.
Ewon, who is also the UPKO Komulakan chief, said that the election of Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) chairman in all villages within the Kadamaian constituency is well accepted as villagers were given the opportunity to be part of the process.
“Our UPKO divisional meeting on Sunday also made a resolution to support the demand of villagers who have come to us and expressed their opinion on this issue and that election should be held. Personally, I don’t think we will be able to strengthen our native legal and judicial system if the person appointed to the chair is not welcomed by its own community.
“UPKO, as the most concerned party to the native legal and judicial system, will continue to speak on what we think is the way forward for this important identity of ours,” he said.
Ewon was speaking at the relaunching of the UPKO Kampung Narinang, Kadamaian where a group of 47 new members joined UPKO led by a church elder, Kaimun Ginsuab. The branch has been dormant for several years until Ewon took over the chairmanship of UPKO Kota Belud in 2013.
“As the divisional chief, it is my duty to convey the aspirations of the people who have come to me, and join us in UPKO. The election for ketua kampung shall be conducted after election of JKKK chairman is fully conducted within this month. We do not want to continue hearing complaints and objections from the villagers on appointments made by the district chief,” he stressed.
“We want the ketua kampung to work to help strengthen the legal and judicial system of the natives, not to just receive allowances as an award to support a particular party. We also do not want power sharing within Barisan Nasional to be just rhetorics in Kota Belud,” he said.