Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in a letter dated July 27, 2005 terminated my contract of employment as a professor in the Centre for History, Political Science and Strategic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities with effect from Aug 26, 2005.

Following my mandatory retirement on May 10, 2005, I was put on a month-to-month contract for two years (May 10, 2005 to May 9, 2007) subject to the approval of the University's Board, Public Services Department, Department of Higher Education and University's Management (letter dated May 31, 2005).

This abrupt/arbitrary and unjust termination of my contract goes against the normal practice and policy of UKM that allows for the retention of senior professors until the age of 65 through the provision of two-year contracts.

A professor who wishes to be retained by the University after his/her retirement at the age of 56 must publish and present his/her monograph as Syarahan Perdana (inaugural/professorial address) in a ceremony.

For those who have not completed their Syarahan Perdana, the university often provides generous and conditional extensions before they could present their inaugural address. For the past 10 years or so, the university has given a number of extensions for professors who had not completed their inaugural address. However, the policy on extension of services after retirement is replete with loopholes and contradictions; there have been cases of senior professors who have been given extension without meeting this requirement. Beyond this, even lecturers, especially those without their PhD have been given generous extensions after their retirement.

I delivered my Syarahan Perdana on March 11, 2005, even before my official retirement. Initially, the university refused to provide an extension of contract, without assigning any reasons.

When I found out that the former dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities was not objective in the evaluation of my application, I had no choice but to appeal the matter to the vice-chancellor. Apparently, the university upon realising the arbitrary decision of the former dean overturned his decision and provided me with a month-to-month contract for two years, subject to the approval of the above stated bodies. However, I was hardly three months into my post-retirement contract when the university very arbitrarily terminated my contract.

Academic experience

Given my academic experience in UKM for nearly 25 years, I strongly suspect that criteria other than academic/research/intellectual influenced the university to terminate my services. In a more precise sense, I speculate that my public role in writing, publishing and speaking on political, social and economic issues such as the lack of democracy in Malaysia, the authoritarian nature of leadership, the sad plight of the Indian community, ethnic discrimination, exploitation of labour and more recently my criticisms of the Malaysian Medical Council's role in the de-registration of the Crimea State Medical University and the systematic exclusion of Indian students from critical disciplines in local universities could have provided the overall context in which the decision was taken against me.

In the past, I have received one or two warnings from the university for publishing critical pieces on Malaysian politics and the nature of political leadership during the Dr Mahathir Mohamad period. Beyond this, I further suspect that my international role in the peace process in Sri Lanka and later Aceh has not been really welcomed by some bureaucratic academicians in the decision-making circles. Very recently, I was cautioned by the chief secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education not to participate in the Aceh-Republic of Indonesia peace talks in Helsinki as an observer.

To date, I have not received any complaints from the university on my academic/research and intellectual performance. I was hired as a lecturer in the Department of political science in 1981, promoted to associate professor in 1993 and full professor of political economy in 1998. I have published four books and numerous articles in local and international journals. I participated in hundreds of conferences/seminars at the local and international levels. I also contribute to a number of online publications such as malaysiakini and Tamil Canadian.

Throughout the years, I have acted as a consultant to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Shell Malaysia, Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and numerous other trade unions, social organisations and political parties. My academic works on Malaysian labour in general and plantation labour in particular have been cited and commended upon by many international scholars. I have a large number of PhD. students under my supervision. I also serve as an academic advisor for the KLC-University of Wales academic programme.

About two years ago, I was appointed by the university to serve as the coordinator for the Global Labour University masters programme sponsored by the ILO. UKM is the only University in Asia that was given the prestige and privilege to host the programme. Without my expertise on global labour matters and my long-time association with ILO and MTUC, the programme would not have been brought to UKM. About a month back, I submitted a 35-page proposal to the university so that the programme could be launched in 2007.

However, in my absence and without my expertise, it would be difficult for the university to implement this programme or convince the ILO about the future of the global masters programme. Denial of contract of employment has also complicated my efforts in establishing academic collaboration between UKM, University of Kassel and Cardiff University so as to obtain funds from the EU-Asia Link.

In the last five years or so, I have taken a keen interest in internal/nationalistic conflicts in places like Sri Lanka, Aceh and Papua (Irian Jaya). Given my extensive writings on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, I had the honour of being appointed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to its Constitutional Affairs Committee in 2003 as one of the political/constitutional experts. After several rounds of meetings in Killinochi, Paris and Dublin, the committee completed its proposal for an Interim Administration for the North-East of Sri Lanka in late 2003. Later for my participation in the peace process, a number of Sri Lankan leaders commended me.

Similarly, I also have taken much interest in the peace process in Aceh. As an observer in the recent Helsinki Talks, I was able to provide valuable input for Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) to move in the direction of a lasting political settlement. I am pleased that both the parties, GAM and the Republic of Indonesia would be finally signing a peace agreement on Aug 15, 2005 in Helsinki.

I have done a number of research projects on the major themes of labour and ethnicity funded by the Selangor state government (estate workers' housing), Education Welfare and Research Foundation (socio-economic aspects of the Malaysian Indian community), University of Tokyo-Nissan Foundation (plantation workers' in Riau, Sumatra), ILO (impact of AFTA on trade unions), Ministry of Rural Development, Malaysia (poverty among former estate workers) and ILO (impact of globalisation on trade unions in Malaysia).

Apart from research, I was awarded fellowships at the Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University, Canada, Nordic Institute for Asian Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark, University of Tokyo, University of Kyoto and recently I have been awarded a Guest Professorship at University of Kassel, Germany.

Hollow emphasis

The abrupt and unjust termination of my contract goes to show that there is big gap between what is preached and practiced in UKM.

The university's constant emphasis on academic excellence is basically hollow and devoid of substance. Although UKM has lost excellent teaching staff over the years, no corrective measures have been adopted to stop the brain drain. Strong government control of universities, lack of autonomy, the bureaucratic and mechanical nature of the top administration, intolerance of dissent and the prevailing climate of fear have contributed in stifling the intellectual and academic environment.

At UKM as in other public universities, academic excellence, promotions and extensions of services are not judged by objective and universal criteria, but by the development of personal friendship, favouritism, cronyism and to what extent lecturers subscribe to narrow and sectarian objectives of political parties like Umno. In fact, there are grounds to believe that appointments to senior positions in public universities are determined not by merit but by their loyalty to Umno.

Given the fact that vice-chancellors in public universities are not chosen for their merit but for their political loyalty, there is clear and obvious deficit of intellectual/academic leadership. It is impossible to turn around public universities into world-class universities when vice-chancellors do not have the academic and intellectual leadership to provide these institutions with vision and clarity. I strongly believe that in my case it was the general lack of autonomy and the restrictive nature of the role of the vice-chancellor that allowed for my termination to be effected abruptly. At the same time, it should be acknowledged that UKM practices double standards in the promotion of lecturers, appointment of administrators and extension of contracts.

It is beyond reasonable doubt that I have been victimised and discriminated by UKM for being outspoken and critical on many issues of the larger Malaysian society. Since they could not get rid of me during my tenure as a permanent staff, they had to wait for my official retirement. UKM's often-repeated policy of retaining staff until the age of 65 is a mere rhetoric without any substance.

I have contributed much to the academic and intellectual environment in UKM in the past 25 years.

However, they have repaid me by giving me an instant dismissalso much for respect, tolerance and development of a caring society. I take this opportunity to demand that UKM re-instate my two-year contract, consistent with the policy on the re-hiring of retired staff.