Please allow me to comment on the Edmund Terrence Gomez saga . A couple of years ago when I left (or was I also pushed out?) Universiti Malaya after writing about the systemic corruption and incompetence within the university system, some viewed me as another angry foreign student.

Well, the truth is finally coming out for all to see. Contrary to the belief that so-called top-notch administrators and 'brilliant minds' are running the UM, what we have there is a system that is characteristic of all other public institutions in Malaysia, and that is institutionalised racism.

The mission of UM is not that of a world-class university geared towards academic excellence. By most standards, UM has a corrupted academic culture that does not allow independent and inquisitive minds to grow.

It is happy to see people like KS Jomo and Gomez go so that the rot can continue not to be noticed under this mediocre environment. If one looks at the rot created over the years by this mediocre enterprise, then one cannot be surprised by the Gomez saga.

And to the question as to when will Malaysians will abandon their corrupt tribal practices, the best answer that I can think of at the moment is, never. This is no exaggeration because under Malaysia's thriving culture of corruption, mediocrity is an accepted norm.

Once the rot has become endemic, it becomes hard if not impossible to imagine what else these so-called top-notch administrators and 'brilliant minds' are capable of doing. In any other country with credible laws, the university authorities would have been asked to revisit their decision to force Gomez to resign. But again we are talking about Bolehland, where laws are never effectively applied.

It is little wonder then that things are as they are in the country`s universities with academic standards and reputations dropping each year. If the country's leaders cannot see this lack of compatibility between this institutionalised racism and the need to develop a competitive academic culture, then Malaysia and Malaysians should therefore just forget about becoming a centre of education excellence.

The Gomez saga is an added evidence that, unfortunately, critics of the rot in Malaysian universities were right all along.