Federal government’s appointment of the first ever non-Sarawakian to be the board chairman of Univeriti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) has caught Sarawak by surprise. Prior to this, all previous appointments have been filled by Sarawakian after consultation with the Sarawak Government.
Furthermore, it has been done abruptly since the third board chairman of Unimas Sulong Matjeraie’s term will not expire until April 30, 2021.
So my questions to the Federal Government are:
1. Looking at the past board chairman of Unimas, Sarawak is not without talent, why would the federal government appoint a West Malaysian as the president of Unimas?
2. What is the reason to replace the current chairman in such a hurry?
3. Will the interest of anak Sarawak especially on the priority to enter Unimas remained after a none Sarawakian took over the board chairman position?
It is important for Federal to understand that Sarawakian are still looking to regain our autonomy accordingly to MA63 and many are feeling disturbed by the various “conflicting stunt” against Sarawak made by PH and DAP. For example, one month after the PH government took over Putrajaya, Petronas filed a legal challenge against Sarawak government over the right to regulate oil and gas upstream activity in Sarawak. Soon after, the Federal government announced that the Office of the Registrar of Borneo High Court will be moved from Kuching Sarawak to Kota Kinabalu Sabah without the consultation of the Sarawak State Government. And today, we were told the Board Chairman of the one and only public university in Sarawak will be replaced by a formal politician from Wangsa Maju.
In the case of UNIMAS, it has been the tradition where a Sarawakian leader will be made the Board Chairman of the University in Sarawak. Eg. The first Chairman of Unimas Tan Sri Bujang Nor was the board member of many corporate companies and Sarawak’s state finance secretary before being appointed as the board chairman of Unimas. The Second chairman of Unimas Dr Hatta Solhi was Yayasan Sarawak’s Deputy Chairman and the director of Malaysia Centre for Development Studies in the prime minister office Sarawak Branch prior to his appointment as chairman of Unimas. The third chairman of Unimas Tan Sri Sulong Matjeraie was a retired Federal Court judge before his appointment as the chairman of Unimas.
The newly appointed chairman Tan Sri Kamal Mat Salih will be the first none Sarawakian board chairman for Unimas. He was formerly the member of parliament for Wangsa Maju before being appointed as the president of International Medical University, a private university in KL.
In January 2016, the late Chief Minister of Sarawak Tan Sri Adenan Satem announced 13 devolution of administrative power from the Federal Government to State Government. One of the administrative power Sarawak government managed takeover from the Federal government was: More Sarawakians would be given greater opportunity to enter foundation studies programmes in UNIMAS.
