KUCHING: Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has been accused of being ignorant of the concept of the federal government’s village Community Management Council (Majlis Pengurusan Komuniti Kampung — MPKK).
Wan Junaidi got the attention of Democratic Action Party (DAP) Serian Branch chairman, Edward Luwak, when he said “MPKK is nothing more than an instrument to create a divided community in each village”.
In a press statement, Edward explained that MPKKs are voluntary village organisations which people should be encouraged to set up.
He said that Wan Junaidi was not aware (or preferred to be unaware) of why the federal government decided to implement the MPKK policy.
He pointed out that Pakatan Harapan (PH) actually wanted to standardise all village committees after toppling the Barisan Nasional (BN) government. The central government needs to clarify and widen their scopes of duties for better management of villages so that government projects and programmes could be better managed.
“In the process, the federal government came up with MPKK whose roles are similar to those of the village security and development committees (Jawatankuasa Keselamatan dan Kemajuan Kampung — JKKKs) but with modifications and improvements,” he said.
He claimed that the state government refused to change the ‘JKKK’ abbreviation yet called itself PH-friendly as if JKKKs would work hand-in-hand with MPKKs.
He also claimed that the federal government did, in principle, agree to retain the JKKKs for Sarawak.
However the Sarawak government, he asserted, has been all out against programmes organised by the federal government. As an example, he alleged that community leaders and JKKK members were instructed to ‘boycott’ all events organised by the federal government including ceremonies and celebrations of festivals.
“Who then is really dividing the community?” Edward asked.
Insisting that MPKKs are not meant to divide the people but to compliment the management of villages by the chiefs or Tuai Rumah and JKKKs, he assured Wan Junaidi and other GPS leaders that MPKK will work together with village chiefs and JKKKs in implementing programmes that benefit villagers.
He hoped that village chiefs and JKKKs will reciprocate well when MPKKs organise their events or implement projects meant to benefit them and their people.
