Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said Rela units in Sarawak should not be headed by West Malaysians but by locals as they knew better the situation and the surroundings.

 

He was asked by reporters today in Kuching to comment on reports that several Rela members wished to resign as members due to their unhappiness over the transfer of West Malaysians to head Rela units in certain districts in Sarawak, implying that the locals were not qualified.

 

The Santubong MP admitted that he was in the dark on this but intended find out from the State director of Rela what the situation was. “We will find a solution,” said Wan Junaidi.

 

Rela or the People’s Volunteer Corps is under the Home Ministry. With a membership of 2,873, 671 up to May 2013, the department has become the third “security” force after the army and the police.

Pointing out that Rela was the “bridge” between government leaders and the people, Wan Junaidi  said that Rela members were “eyes and ears” of the government.

 

Only local leaders could be effective in playing that role as they were well-versed in their own surroundings, he stressed.

 

The issue was highlighted recently in the media by Rela Liaison Officer for Penrissen Paul Akiu.

“We really don’t know what the government is trying to tell us now, or are they saying that no local people are qualified for that particular post or what?” Paul asked.

He said that what dismayed them was that there were many locals who were equally qualified for the posts if not better.

Several quarters in Sarawak had expressed their disappointment over the issue in their Facebook accounts.

Among them was Boniface Willy Tumek who said that the appointments were just not only a humiliating act of depriving Sarawakians of legitimate roles in promoting peace and security in the state.

 “This is just one more addition to a series of opportunity-depriving acts by the federal government,” he said in his account.

“Sarawakians have long been deprived of opportunities in the federal departments and federal government-linked companies in the state, in the education sector as teachers and now, Rela district chiefs,” he lamented.

He also asked what Wan Junaidi was doing about it since he came from Sarawak and since that Rela was under his ministry.

“We want to know,” Boniface said.