The tiff between Higher Education Minister Dr Shafie Salleh and University Putra Malaysia vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mohd Zohadie has spotlighted on how top talents are being treated in the country's educational institutions.

Mohd Zohadie was ordered to quit from his post after he recited a poem at a recent function which allegedly ridiculed the minister.

The vice-chancellor was said to be miffed with the ministry's decision to transfer a new aerospace programme from UPM to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang today highlighted another case of forced resignation involving a top academic at the Universiti Malaya.

Dr Edmund Terence Gomez, described by Lim as "one of the nation's diminishing breed of internationally-renowned scholars", has been denied a two-year leave of secondment to take up the prestigious research appointment at a United Nations agency in Geneva.

The rejection has forced Gomez to resign from the university, which according to Lim was "not only a loss to the university but also to the nation".

Gomez, an associate professor of political economy at UM's Faculty of Economics and Administration, was picked by the Geneva-based United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) to fill the newly-created post of project manager for the research on identity change and social cohesion in multi-ethnic societies.

In the two-year appointment, Gomez will develop and lead a comparative worldwide study of causes of racial conflict.

"Gomez's appointment by UNRISD should be regarded as a national honour, but this does not appear to be the attitude of the Universiti Malaya authorities," lamented Lim.

Gomez has authored and edited numerous acclaimed books, among them, Money Politics in Barisan Nasional , Political Business: Corporate involvement of Malaysian political parties , and Malaysia's Political Economy: Politics, Patronage and Profits .

Jomo sidelined too

Lim also recalled the loss of top economist Prof KS Jomo - a colleague of Gomez - who was given the raw end of the academic stick for many years.

Jomo left UM for the United Nations early this year to take up the appointment of assistant secretary-general under Kofi Annan after "decades of frustration, discrimination and non-recognition of his academic and intellectual talents and qualities", said Lim.

"An internationally-renowned economist and scholar, Jomo was never given any senior appointment, whether as dean of faculty or even head of department, although many of his students have occupied these positions.

"In the early 90s, he was even subject to the embarrassment of a demotion when after serving for a number of years as professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies, he was reverted to be an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics and Administration before he was finally appointed a full professor."

Lim said that Jomo's last straw was when his application to be senior professor was rejected three years ago, although he had a "star-studded reference" of three Nobel laureates, including economists Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz.

"I do not think there has been any other case of application for academic promotion in the local universities where there is even one Nobel laureate as a reference, let alone three Nobel laureates yet Jomo failed in his application!

"Let us not again ' cakap tak serupa bikin ' and continue to treat most shabbily Malaysian talents and towering personalities cherished internationally but slighted in their own country, like Jomo," said Lim.

The opposition leader is seeking a meeting with the higher education minister to urge him to retain the two top academics - Gomez and Muhd Zohadie.

"I call on Shafie to take categorical steps to retain the continued services of Gomez in UM and Muhd Zohadie as vice-chancellor of UPM to demonstrate his and the government's 'walk the talk' with regard to commitment to the national goal to become an international educational centre of excellence with world-class universities," said Lim.