KANOWIT: Ngemah assemblyman Alexander Vincent assured longhouse chiefs in his area that the number of those given the post will keep increasing in the future.
This, he said was due to the rising populations in longhouses.
“When there are more residents, some may have different ideologies on certain things and this could lead to a ‘split’ among them.
“When this happens, they may want to be separated from their existing longhouse and build one of their own and later appoint their own longhouse chief.
“Furthermore, now allowance for community leaders including ‘tuai rumah’ has been increased,” he said at a dialogue with 56 longhouse chiefs under Ngemah state constituency held at Kanowit District Office meeting room here on Friday.
He said this when touching on the issue of eight longhouse chiefs who still received old allowance in amount although they were already given appointment letters.
Alexander said he knows their responsibility as community leader was not easy, especially when they were not paid for it.
On a similar matter, he hoped all community leaders in Ngemah will continue to carry out their responsibilities with integrity, sincerity and diligently.
“You are appointed by the government to lead the people at the grassroots level because the government has confidence in you,” he said.
Also present were Penghulu Barnabas Angkis and state administrative officer Harmon Gilbert Sinju.