Tasik Biru DAP man wants fellow Bidayuhs to have a say in the appointment of village chiefs

KUCHING: Tasik Biru DAP chairman Mordi Bimol wants the Bidayuh community to continue having a say in the appointment of village chiefs.

He said it had always been the way for the Bidayuhs to elect the right person to become their leaders and such tradition must be maintained.

He, however, claimed that nowadays the village chiefs would be appointed directly by a panel of individuals, which would include the district officer ( DO) and the Pemanca.

“I have received complaints from the people of at least five villages, saying that is no more election of village chiefs nowadays.

“One of these complainants is a former ‘ketua kaum’ of a village in Tasik Biru state constituency. This is not right as the person selected may not be the choice of the majority,” he said, adding that he would seek clarification from the DO soon and insist that the tradition of election at ‘kampong’ (village) level be maintained.

It is learned that attempts to contact the DO yesterday failed.

However, the Bau Chinese community leader Pemanca Bong Jong Long and Bau Bidayuh community leader Pemanca Daniel Teho believed that Mordi could have been misinformed.

According to Daniel, there are several processes involved as far as the appointment of any village chief is concerned.

Firstly, he said the villagers must call a meeting to nominate three or more names to be submitted to the DO.

“But sometimes, only one name is submitted because some of them may not be interested in becoming the ‘ketua kaum’,” he said.

Next, Daniel said the DO would do the vetting before calling the nominees for interview.

“The interview is important in making sure that those to be appointed would understand their duties as the ‘ketua kaum’. After the interview, the DO would submit the proposed name to the YB (elected people’s representative) for further vetting and then, recommendation,” he said, adding that this step was to ensure that the nominee could work well with the elected representative of the day.

Daniel pointed out that the vetting and interview would only be carried out upon the submission of the list of nominees by the said village development and security committee (JKKK) members.

“The names of the candidate submitted by the JKKK members must be supported with the minutes of village’s meeting.

“So there is no way can there be any direct appointment (of village chief) by the DO, myself or the YB because the names submitted to the DO are from the JKKK members themselves,” he said.

Daniel said this proved that the village folk still had their say in the selection of village chief in the initial stage.

Bong concurred with Daniel, saying that the same procedures would apply to the appointment of any Chinese ‘kapitan’.

“There are certain places where the ‘kapitan’ are directly appointed because there is no other candidate,” he said.