The participation of the local community in the decision-making activity has its own significant role in
determining that every decision made, centralizes on the needs of the local community. Such an
involvement is admittedly crucial in ensuring that every program held is “blessed” by the local
community and wins their support and cooperation in rendering success to the program. In relation to
this, this article aims at recognizing the participation of the Iban community in the decision-making
activities with regards to the poverty eradication programs (or People’s Welfare Development Scheme)
implemented in the district of Song, Sarawak. To meet this objective, the survey method has been
adopted to obtain the information important for the study. The questionnaire forms were distributed to
260 Iban community’s Heads of Household at the longhouse. The data obtained were then analysed
using the descriptive statistics through SPSS. All in all, the discovery of this study points to the fact
that the majority of the Heads of Household (90.0%) have had participated in at least one decisionmaking
activity in relation to the implementation of the programs under the SPKR or the People’s
Welfare Development Scheme. The study finding also shows that the Heads of Household participated
in the program’s decision-making activities have pointed out that they occasionally make their voices
heard and are involved in ways such as attending the meeting, representing the locals in the
discussions, giving opinion in the discussions, managing the conflict that emerges out of the program
implementation and posing questions in the discussion of the program under the scheme mentioned.
Notwithstanding, the findings also establish that many of the Heads of the Household admitted that
they had never taken part in the planning of work, evaluating or troubleshooting that might occur in the
execution of the program, in the resolution of implementation issues and in the decision-making on the
program implementation under this scheme.
Artikel ini meneliti desentralisasi kuasa dan hubungnya dengan penglibatan komuniti Iban dalam Skim
Pembangunan Kesejahteraan Rakyat (SPKR). Bagi tujuan pengumpulan data kajian, kaedah temu bual
berstruktur menggunakan borang soal selidik telah dijalankan ke atas 260 Ketua Isi Rumah (KIR)
rumah panjang di Daerah Song, Sarawak. Penemuan kajian menunjukkan desentralisasi kuasa dalam
program di bawah SPKR berada pada tahap sederhana. Analisis Ujian Khi Kuasa Dua pula
menunjukkan terdapat perhubungan yang signifikan (p ≤ 0.05) antara tahap desentralisasi kuasa dengan
penglibatan masyarakat Iban dalam pelaksanaan dan penilaian program di bawah SPKR. Ini
menggambarkan semakin tinggi tahap desentralisasi kuasa yang diterima oleh masyarakat, maka
semakin tinggi tahap penglibatan mereka dalam aktiviti pelaksanaan dan penilaian program di bawah
skim tersebut. Sebaliknya, perhubungan tersebut adalah tidak signifikan (p ≥ 0.05) dari segi tahap
penglibatan dalam membuat keputusan dan berkongsi manfaat daripada program di bawah SPKR.