17 LABUAN VILLAGE HEADS WANT SAY IN JPKK APPOINTMENTS

13 March 2021

LABUAN: Seventeen village heads here have asked to be given a role in the appointment of the new line-up of their Village Development and Security Committee (JPKK).

They said their opinions on the 11 qualified committee members must be taken into account in the interest of unity at the village level.

The spokesman for the group, Kamal Ariffin Khalidin, said the appointments for the new committees had not been made since the new village heads were appointed in October last year.

"The appointments have not been settled, leaving the village heads in a quandary over village development issues and allocations," he said in a press conference here today.

He said a petition had been submitted to the Department of Community Development (Kemas) urging it to consider the village heads' views on the appointments to the 11 committees.

"There must be no political involvement in the appointment of the committee, as it will only jeopardise unity among the villagers," he said.

“In the interest of people’s unity, the line-up of the 11 committees must be non-partisan or at least individuals who are accepted by the villagers and work alongside the village heads to execute development plans and security aspects for the villagers,” he said.

Labuan has a head for each of the 27 village committees, which have been renamed as JPKK following the rebranding of the committee in July last year. - Bernama