The Higher Education Ministry has overruled the decision by Universiti Malaya to reject Dr Edmund Terence Gomez's application for two-year secondment to head a prestigious United Nations research project.

Higher Education Minister Dr Shafie Salleh has announced that the government has approved the top academic's unpaid leave and revoked his resignation.

Shafie said that he had asked Higher Education Department director-general Professor Dr Hassan Said to inform Gomez about the government's decision.

Gomez, who was forced to tender his resignation early this month after his leave application was rejected, was evidently elated by the news.

"I am very grateful to the prime minister for responding to my call to intervene in this matter. Since the minister of higher education and the prime minister are responsible for the appointment of vice-chancellors, I had called on them to ensure a just resolution to the issue of my secondment...," he told malaysiakini .

Need for reforms

However, he stressed that the controversy generated by his forced resignation has helped expose the serious problems that exist in the universities.

"I hope the prime minister will respond just as judiciously to institute the reforms that our universities urgently need," added Gomez.

The government's stand on the controversial issue comes as a blow to UM vice-chancellor Prof Dr Hashim Yaacob who had yesterday defended his decision to reject Gomez's secondment application.

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 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.

Renowed academic

A world renowned academic, 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 .

His forced resignation was brought to light by Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang last month and this has generated extensive discussion among readers of online news website malaysiakini .

"I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to Lim Kit Siang for bringing my problems in UM to the public domain. And to malaysiakini, for giving us a space to voice and discuss these issues," said Gomez.

With the revocation of his resignation from UM, Gomez will be able to return in two years after the completion of his UN posting to continue his teaching at the university.

Solidarity dinner to go on

In an immediate reaction, Lim commended both Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Higher Education Minister Shafie for their intervention in reinstating Gomez.

"The reinstatement of Dr Terence Gomez is the most important development in higher education in the past 20 months," he said.

Lim added that the "praiseworthy conclusion to the Gomez debacle" should give heart to Malaysians who support higher education reforms to ensure the country's public universities can attain world-class status.

The opposition leader said that the 'Solidarity with Dr Terence Gomez' dinner which he is organising at the Kelana Seafood Centre will go ahead as planned on Monday at 8.30pm.

"It (the dinner) would now be even more meaningful with the vindication of Gomez's case, and even more important, to focus national attention on long-overdue university reforms," he said, adding that there could be one or two surprises in store at the dinner.