Upko vice-president Lucas Umbul had said this following the decision of Education Minister Maszlee Malik to appoint Taufiq Yap Yun Hin as the new Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) vice-chancellor (VC) without consulting the state leadership.
Liew, who is also deputy chief minister, said the more important matter now was that a Sabahan had been named to lead the university.
“I will not comment on this (Upko statement) because as far as I know, the VC has been appointed. He’s a Sabahan and he’s from Kota Kinabalu.
“He has vouched he will continue to work for the good and benefit of UMS and students… and we look forward to seeing that.
“We should move on,” she told reporters after launching the Hyatt Regency Kinabalu’s 40th-anniversary celebration here today.
Lucas had on Sunday criticised PH, saying it had failed to show it was better than the BN as it did not consult the state on the appointment of the new UMS VC.
“We know this is under their (ministry) jurisdiction but this directly involves Sabah. The least they can do is provide information (on the appointment) first before deciding. That’s what you call courtesy.”
Upko is part of the coalition that forms the Sabah government. The others are Warisan and PH component parties DAP and PKR.
Chief Minister Shafie Apdal had also previously said the education ministry did not consult the state government over the UMS VC’s appointment.
‘No witch hunt’
Meanwhile, Liew, who is also Sabah tourism, culture and environment minister, said the state would not embark on a “witch hunt” for illegal dive operators following the deaths of two Chinese tourists in a fish-bombing incident off Semporna last month.
She said the dive operator, who was waiting for approval of an operating licence, should not have taken the tourists for a diving excursion.
“I checked with the tourism, arts and culture ministry at the federal level and an officer told me they (the company that brought the Chinese tourists) had applied for a licence. But this process takes some time, according to them.
“Of course, since they had not officially received the licence, they should not have been taking tourists for dives.”
These dive operator licences are issued by the federal tourism, arts and culture ministry.
“Appropriate action will be taken but we’re not out on a witch hunt. These are small businessmen trying to make a living,” Liew said.
Instead, she said, these operators should be encouraged to get their licences.
“We will wait for the police investigation to be completed first. It will give us a good bearing on how we should move forward,” she said.
She disclosed that state tourism officials had met with the families of the two Chinese divers who had died.
She said the state, through the Sabah Tourism Board, had agreed to cover all the expenses incurred by the families while in Sabah.
She added they were also given RM50,000 as “compassionate and goodwill” payment before they flew back to China last week.
“It’s not compensation. The families of the victims have agreed to wait for the outcome of the probe before we decide how we move on from there.”
Two divers from China – Zhao Zhong and Xu Yingjie, both 26 – and a local diving instructor, Ab Zainal Abdu, 30, were killed off Pulau Kalapuan in Semporna during a diving excursion on July 5.
Sabah police have confirmed they are investigating the incident, initially thought to be an accident involving fish bombs, as pre-meditated murder. A post-mortem on the divers revealed they had died of injuries sustained in the blast.
Sabah police chief Omar Mammah had also revealed that Zainal had received death threats last year, prompting the instructor to lodge a police report.
Police arrested a 24-year-old boatman and his assistant, 23, following the incident. Both are related to Zainal. Later, police arrested another 10 people, including sea gypsies, for questioning.