KUCHING, Jan 3 — The Women wing of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) today slammed the federal government for appointing a non-Sarawakian to be chairman of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) without consulting the state government.

Its chief Kho Teck Wan said the appointment of Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) chairman Tan Sri Kamal Mat Salih as the fourth Unimas chairman has come as a shock to people of Sarawak.

"Prior to this, all previous appointments have been filled by Sarawakians after consultation with the Sarawak government,” Kho said when commenting on the appointment of Kamal for a three-year term, effective two days ago.

She expressed regret that the appointment was done abruptly since the term of the third board chairman Tan Sri Sulong Matjeraie will not expire until April 30, 2021.

She questioned the rationale of the federal government for appointing a non-Sarawakian as there are many Sarawakians who have the qualifications to hold the post.

"What is the reason to replace the current chairman in such a hurry?” she asked.

Kho also questioned if the interests of Sarawakians, especially in terms of priority entry to Unimas, will remain the same with a non- Sarawakian as the chairman.

Kho said Kamal’s appointment is one of various "disturbing and conflicting stunts” against Sarawak made by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government.

She said a month after the PH government took over Putrajaya, the national oil company Petronas filed a legal challenge against Sarawak government over the right to regulate oil and gas upstream activities in Sarawak.

"Soon after, the federal government announced the relocation of the Office of the Registrar of the High Court in Sabah and Sarawak from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu without the consultation of the state government.

Kho said in the case of Unimas, it has been the tradition that a Sarawakian is made the board chairman.

She said the first chairman was former state secretary Tan Sri Bujang Mohammed Nor, the second was former Sarawak Foundation deputy chairman and director of the Malaysian Centre for Development Studies, Dr Hatta Solhi, before the appointment of Sulong, a former federal court judge, on May 1, 2018.