In your report Terence Gomez case: UM's explanation 'extraordinary' , there were two unsurprising things and one shockingly surprising thing.

The first unsurprising thing was that the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development would choose a Malaysian to direct its research on race relations. In the world of social policy, Malaysia's ongoing experiments in race relations and the New Economic Policy and its successors are closely watched.

The second unsurprising thing was that Dr Edmund Terence Gomez was chosen. Both inside and outside of Malaysia he is recognised for the high quality of his research on Malaysia's political economy and its racial politics. Gomez is truly a world-class scholar, the type ever-in-demand by prestigious international bodies such as the UN.

The strange and shocking thing is that Universiti Malaya, which should be worried about brain drain and finding creative ways to keep their world-class scholars, appears to be chasing Gomez from his job.

Rather than worrying about Gomez leaving UM, UM is forcing him to quit in order to advance his career. What university can afford to chase away their brightest stars? Here in Germany and in the UK, we must treat brain drain quite seriously because the Swiss and US universities have greater resources and much prestige.

With a sincere heart, I hope the administration of UM reconsiders its choices and immediately offer Gomez a secondment. This is a cheap and minimal strategy to lure Gomez back to UM when his appointment at the UN is over.

An even cleverer strategy would be to not only offer a secondment, but to additionally postpone the sabbatical leave that Gomez was already awarded so as to additionally encourage him to return to UM.

If UM takes such an action now, two years from now Switzerland's loss will be Malaysia's gain.