KUCHING: Councillors of local authorities in Sarawak will be getting bigger allowances soon, said Environment and Public Health Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh.

He said the state government would be revising the allowances of councillors especially those who needed to travel far and stay overnight to attend meetings including those held here.

“I have visited 13 councils and received similar feedback that the councillors should be given bigger allowances,” he told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from representatives of the Kuching Division Journalists Association at his office at Wisma Bapa Malaysia yesterday.

Wong said he had brought this feedback to the state cabinet and they felt that the councillors could not be given fixed salaries like kapitan Cina or penghulu.

“But they (cabinet members) will revise the allowances such as accommodation and food for those coming to Kuching for meetings,” Wong said.

Wong who is also Second Finance Minister said the name list of councillors and new Miri mayor had already been approved and would be announced after the next state cabinet meeting.

He confirmed that the new Miri mayor would be a member from the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), but declined to reveal his name.

“All appointments will start from Jan 1, 2009 and are for a one-year term,” he said, adding that more than half of the councillors would be new faces as those who had served for six years would have to give way to others.

Wong said councillors must possess the spirit of volunteerism and willing to serve the people to their best.

“They must go down to the ground to mix with the people and find out their problems and help solve them. Their performance will be assessed and those who do not perform well will be replaced when their term expires,” he said.

He said he had also suggested that the councils divide their municipalities into different zones where every councillor could ‘adopt’ a zone to better look after the problems of the people in his area.

To a question, Wong said Sarawak might not strongly feel the effects of the current world economic slowdown now but it would be gradually felt in the next few months.

He said the economic slowdown had affected many countries of the world including China, the country that had the largest population.

“I was watching a televised report on China recently and you can see all the people at train stations carrying their luggage and heading for home. This (economic crisis) is now getting really serious,” he said.