The JKKK is nobody’s political vehicle. It was never meant to be one and it is still not one until today.
What it does is deal mainly with village welfare matters. It regularly takes care of the general cleanliness of the village; decide when to hold a work party, matters pertaining to the annual Gawai Dayak and other festivals, projects to apply for from the government for a particular year, and identify single mothers, the elderly, widows, widowers, and the physically handicapped who badly need government aid, and submit the names to the relevant government agencies.
The headman or ‘ketua kaum’, who may or may not be a member of a political party – although many are but not necessarily from the state lynchpin party PBB – very often call for meetings at short notice. Such a meeting may be just for the JKKK or it may require him to call the whole village. Most of the time meetings of this nature happen if he gets a directive from the District Office, to which he and his JKKK are answerable, or departments like the Health Department, Agriculture Department, Welfare Department, the village Kemas or the school where their children are studying.
The headman and his JKKK do not get orders from political parties – not from GPS or its component parties. PBB, SUPP, PRS and PDP operate through their respective branches or representatives of their parties in the villages. The headmen and the JKKK are not representatives of these parties.
Every year the JKKK would submit applications for funds from their assemblyman or MP for them to carry out their activities. What they cannot get from these representatives they raise on their own through fundraisers such as dinners, stage shows and concerts, side events held during Gawai and sports-related programmes.
Now compare that to the MPKKP (courtesy of Dayak Daily, Oct 27 2019):
Miri, Oct 27: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has made it clear that the establishment of Federal Village Community Management Council (MPKKP) is to capture Sarawak, today.
Lim who is also the Finance Minister has affirmed that Pakatan Harapan will do its best to take over Sarawak in the 12th State election due in 2021.
He said one of the preparations was the approval by the federal government to establish more than 6,000 MPKKP in the state to prepare and train the grassroots for this coming election.
He explained that in addition to assisting the federal government in fulfilling its commitments in Sarawak, the establishment of the MPKKP is to get ready a more effective administrative network at the grassroots level to ensure the future of PH in Sarawak.
Lim who is Finance Minister said this at the Sarawak DAP Convention today.
He said his ministry (the Ministry of Finance) will find ways to “find money” to cope with the huge expenses of MPKKP.
I was secretary of a JKKK for close to 20 years, not once did I hear words like the JKKK must ensure the continued existence of Barisan Nasional, the ruling government those years.
When the state BN was dissolved and GPS was formed I also did not hear GPS leaders telling JKKKs to work to ensure GPS will continue to rule the state. What I often heard was GPS calling on their party branches to work harder to counter-attack the coalition in the villages.
And what the party branches do on the ground has nothing to do with the community leader and his JKKK.
On the other hand, the MPKKP is the equivalent of the JKKK and more; it is a political vehicle fully funded by the federal government to carry out its political agenda.
Speaking to 100 MPKKP chairman materials in Sri Aman on Oct 25, Saratok MP Ali Biju spelled out in Iban three areas where an MPKKP chairman must not be afraid to operate:
One, don’t worry if the headman refuses to chop the school forms; the MPKKP chairman will chop them for you with the MPKKP chop, which is good for all forms of federal departments and agencies such as hospitals, police and Bomba. This chop is also good for applications for oil palm, rubber, animal husbandry subsidies under the federal government.
Two, don’t be afraid if the headman or your assemblymen/MPs threaten not to give you projects. If you form an MPKKP in your longhouse, the federal government will give you projects because MPKKP is under the federal government.
And three, don’t be afraid if your headman threatens to bring you to court for establishing an MPKKP. There is no law against forming MPKKP.
I saw a post by a constitutional expert who pointed out that native affairs in Sarawak actually come under Annex A of the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Schedule 9 of the Federal Constitution. Under this provision, if the central government wishes to pay emoluments to the natives, the money must be paid to the state government, otherwise this is “satu pencerobohan keatas kedaulatan Sarawak” (an intrusion against the sovereignty of the state).
Having said that, for them to steal the government of Sarawak from GPS is still a long shot, but any MPKKP established in the state is already a victory of sorts for the federal government and the Malayan parties.
The presence of the MPKKP means they have begun to rule the state and exert their power on Sarawakians!
