Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said Putrajaya ended its aid to the state after the May 9 general election without providing any explanation. — Picture by Sulok Tawie

KUCHING, Oct 23 ― Sarawak community leaders are banned from attending official functions with Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal ministers and MPs because federal agencies had stopped helping the state government, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said today.

He said Putrajaya ended its aid to the state after the May 9 general election without providing any explanation.

“You also know that the Information Department no longer gave us services because in the past when we organised official functions. The department would serve us, but now not anymore,” he told reporters after witnessing the signing of Understanding between Sarawak Regional Corridor Development Authority and Agrobank Bhd here.

He said Special Affairs Department (JASA) has been dissolved while officers from the Community Development Department (KEMAS) are no longer available to the state government led by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).

He said in some areas, state ministers and elected representatives from GPS are also not allowed to attend to or invited to school functions.

“I think it is only right for the state government to response in term of stopping the services of the village security and development committees to the PH ministers and members of parliament,” he said.

He said it is important that the village committees have the right to know what is going on between the state government and federal agencies in Sarawak.

“So we are not the one who start it first ,” he said, adding that the official memorandum, signed by State Secretary Tan Sri Morshidi Ghani on October 11, addressed to the Residents' Offices of Sarawak's 12 administrative divisions, was an act of response.

The memorandum directed community leaders and village headmen to only attend official functions of the state government.

Uggah said that since May, the allowances of the community leaders and headmen have been fully paid by the state government, unlike before where the federal and the state governments both contributed to the allowances.