KUCHING: Imagine a village being managed by both the federal government’s Village Community Management Council (Majlis Pengurusan Komuniti Kampung — MPKK) and the state government’s Village Security and Development Committee (Jawatankuasa Kemajuan dan Keselamatan Kampung — JKKK).
Right off the bat, the situation would give rise to at least four groups of villagers: (1) those who favour JKKK, (2) pro-MPKK group, (3) fence sitters and the apathetic, and (4) straddlers (those who support both sides at the same time).
This being the case, they will be spending a lot of time and energy to undermine each other, seek supporters and hitting rivals. In other words, there will be little or no cooperation.
Political observer Datuk Peter Minos said should this happen, village unity, cohesion and peace would die over time.
He warned that this is no small issue because the setting up of MPKK will be a real trouble for Sarawak, adding that Pakatan Harapan (PH) will give funds to MPKK to disunite and disrupt the village way of life.
“PH is playing very, very dirty … divide and rule,” he said.
He said village or longhouse culture and traditions would also die as politicking and rivalries take root and become pervasive.
Minos’ questions were, why break apart the villages and longhouses? Why disunite the rural people? Why create trouble when there is none in the first place?
He said it is pretty obvious that PH seeks to create disorder and chaos in the villages and longhouses, and then when all hell breaks loose then it will offer itself as the “saviour” or “peace maker”.
“PH seeks to fish when the water is muddy but this is done at the expense of the rural people and this is very bad. Disunity and problems due to racial and religious issues in Malaya have not been solved and yet they are bringing the same problems to Sarawak,” he said.
“Sarawak PH leaders and supporters say that MPKK will do no harm but do not bet on that. By their words and actions thus far, Sarawakians are already partly divided — some fighting for Sarawak’s rights and interests and some support PH and Malaya-based political parties to topple GPS and take over Sarawak.”
According to Minos, Sarawak PH is fighting very hard to “sell” Sarawak to outsiders while GPS is fighting very hard not to let that happen.
