The Minister of Home Affairs, YB Pehin Orang Kaya Johan Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Adanan bin Begawan Pehin Siraja Khatib Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Mohd Yusof, said the new peghulu and village heads elected must abide by the Brunei Penghulu and Ketua Kampong 1998 service scheme.

He said this in response to a question posed by YB Awang Haji Mohd Shafiee bin Ahmad, a representative from Kuala Belait, during the Sixth Legislative Council Meeting yesterday in the hopes to review the election process and salary scheme for penghulu and ketua kampong.

“I believe that the election process should be reviewed by the ministry in order to select the ideal candidate by majority of the community in the mukim or village, with the right calibre to properly lead the villagers,” said YB Awang Haji Mohd Shafiee.

The minister agreed with the YB’s comments and said that a working paper has been produced to further investigate the current election process and salary scheme that involve security censorship and interview by panel members, and voting and selection, before consideration is made.

“As the significant role of a penghulu or a village head is to be a leader of his people, they must lead them in a flurry of activities or efforts that focus on preserving peace and tranquillity, harmony, cooperation and mutual understanding of society,”

In addition, YB Awang Haji Mohd Shafiee lauded the minister for the project “Outstanding Village Awards” (AKC) that made its debut recently but expressed concern on the process of selection by the organising board of members of mukim and village consultative councils.

Meanwhile, YB Haji Bakar bin Mansoor, a representative from Brunei-Muara District, suggested villages which participate in AKC should be given an annual budget according to their population as a catalyst in developing competitiveness.

According to his observation in other countries, these budget allocations have been passed by their governments.

In response, the minister believed that AKC has given a significant and positive impact towards the involvement of villagers for progress and the organising board of members will conduct a post mortem to review the selection process and budget allocation.

In this respect, YB Pg Setia Negara Pengiran (Dr) Haji Mohd Yusof also raised concern about pension and charity funds under penghulu and village heads. The responsibility involves up to thousands of dollars a month, and still waiting to be collected.

“I’m concerned on the safety of the respective penghulu or village heads and their families because there is no guaranteed assurance they will not be robbed or kidnapped,” he said.

In response, the minister said this matter has been raised not just during the previous Legislative Council meeting but also in a meeting with penghulu and village heads during working visits.

The minister advised the penghulu and village heads to contact relevant authorities for their own and their family members’ safety and not to delay the distribution of funds to the people.

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