KUCHING: Would the implementation of the Federal Village Community Management Council (Majlis Pengurusan Komuniti Kampung Persekutuan – MPKKP) breach any state or federal law?
When reporters asked this question, Santubong Member of Parliament (MP) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said, “MPKK will have to deal with the local governments and certain state jurisdictions as spelled out in the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, 1962.
“It states that a village chief is not a public servant. The position is a local authority under the Local Authority Ordinance, 1996. It is in the IGC Report before the formation of Malaysia. It is placed under List II of the Federal Constitution,” he said.
He elaborated that it is clear as the Report was also included in the Federal Constitution which states that village management in Sarawak is under the state’s jurisdiction.
“Whatever is established in Sarawak apart from the JKKK is against the IGC Report and the letter and spirit of the Federal Constitution.
“I have asked the local authority to think about the matter and refer it to legal experts in order to see whether it can be brought to court for judgement. We want to know whether the MPKKP is in line with the IGC Report and/or the Federal Constitution,” he said.
He argued in his speech that the MPKK taking over the state politically using the federal government’s money and civil service was not right.
“That is why we will wait if the 6,000 villages and longhouses in the state would accept the MPKKP.
“The implementation of MPKKP in the whole of Malaysia would involve thousands and thousands of villages. If one village receives, say, RM10,000, imagine how much money the federal government would have to spend,” he said.
Also, if the MPKKP is implemented in Sarawak, the state will never be the same again — socially, politically and economically.
“There would be two authorities in a village; one the Village Security and Development Committee (JKKK) under the state government and the other the MPKKP under the federal government which would be akin to a border fence right in the middle of the village separating the people into two camps. This is what I am worried about because Sarawakians have not been divided for so many years,” he said.
He again stressed that when Sarawak is no more as it used to be, peace and harmony would also cease to be as before.
