I just read Jeffrey Henderson's letter about Dr Edmund Terrnce Gomez's problems at the University of Malaya. Like Professor Henderson, I got to know Gomez during his time in the UK. In fact, we collaborated closely on two major research projects at Leeds University.
Also like Henderson, I did my best to persuade Gomez to stay on in the UK and work on further projects. Everyone saw Gomez as a star performer and people were keen to recruit him to boost the research standing of their departments and universities at a time when UK research was about to be subjected to a national assessment.
He could have taken his pick of jobs for his record of research and publishing was beginning to look spectacular. Had he chosen to stay, he would have rocketed up the hierarchy and the pay scales.
I happen to know that he also received offers from universities in other countries. People were amazed that he chose instead to go back to a relatively poorly paid post in Kuala Lumpur. He did so because his chief concern was for the future of his country rather than with his own personal advancement.
He wanted to contribute to Malaysia's economic and political life, and to help build the University of Malaya. In the West, such an attitude is rare. We all intensely admired his patriotic commitment. As one of Gomez's academic referees, I was disappointed that he failed to get promotion at the University of Malaya in 2003.
Now he wants to spend some time in Geneva with the UN, but the university has denied him leave of secondment. It has also refused his wife, Dr Sharmani Patricia Gabriel, unpaid leave so she and the children can join Gomez during his two years in Switzerland.
This is starting to look like malice and harassment. Such behaviour will harm the university's good name if it continues. I hope the university authorities change their minds and decide to support Gomez's plans.
All the universities I've worked for would have considered his appointment to this post an honour. I write this letter in the hope that the university will think again, and show Gomez just a little of the same loyalty he has shown them.
The writer is Professor of Chinese History at the University of Wales, Cardiff.
