NEW UNIMAS CHAIRMAN
KUCHING: It is both a nasty and bad decision of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government to terminate Tan Sri Sulong Matjeraie, a Sarawakian as chairman of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), who was supposed to serve until April 2021, then prematurely replacing him with a Malayan.
Political commentator Datuk Peter Minos said, worse, the PH government did not have the courtesy of consulting the Sarawak government, which was normally done for such appointments, in the past.
Minos, who is a former board member of Unimas, said Sulong’s removal showed that Sarawakians were not safe to work in a federal agency and the PH government might hire and fire at will.
“Sulong is a former Federal Court judge and highly experienced and respected, but the way he was treated is truly bad, to say the least.”
The state government and several parties in Sarawak have asked Putrajaya to explain why a West Malaysian has been appointed as the chairman of Unimas when Sarawak has a lot of local talents.
Tan Sri Dr Kamal Mat Salih, who is chairman of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) was appointed the fourth chairman of Unimas board of directors last Thursday.
The post has been held by Sarawakians, the first being Tan Sri Datuk Amar Bujang Mohd Nor, second was Datuk Dr Hatta Solhi, and followed by Sulong.
