The debate over Dr Edmund Terence Gomez who was denied leave by his employer, the University of Malaya, to take up a UN post, has been going on for sometime and most of the letters to malaysiakini including from his foreign academic friends, have branded UM unwise for not keeping him.

Well, I have this to say to Gomez: In the name of God, go.

In our very short span of life, everything is quite relative. People may say that you, as a brilliant social scientist, would be a great loss to Malaysia. But in a country where norms and dogmas are sometimes quite unfathomable, there is only so much that you can do.

Like I said, everything is relative. Gomez should take up new challenges. It could end up the best decision he has ever made in his life.