As Dr Edmund Terence Gomez, one of the most respected Malaysian social science scholars leaves Universiti Malaya , its administration goes from unwise decision to foolish excuse.

Academics of Gomez's calibre are hard to come by; his faculty will be very, very, very hard- pressed to fill his seat. Many Malaysians lament the forced resignation of one of our most erudite and prolific scholars; my response resonates with them. I agree as well that our universities have become abysmally politicised.

Can there be any fathomable reason at all for such a misguided decision? Consider the organisation Gomez will be working for. The UN Research Institute for Social Development , according to its mandate, is an autonomous UN agency engaging in multidisciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary problems affecting development. Through its research, UNRISD stimulates dialogue and contributes to policy debates on key issues of social

development within and outside the United Nations system.

Surely the UM administration cannot object to such a cause, can it? What about the people? A browse through UNRISD's formidable list of directors and collaborating researchers leaves one humbled. Gomez will join an acclaimed international community of scholars, many from developing countries; almost all of which are attached to universities whose profiles are raised by their UNRISD affiliation. He will be a rare project leader with no university affiliation.

Consider the project he will be taking up. Gomez will head a research project on the causes of ethnic conflict and identity change. This is his passion and expertise, an area in which Malaysia has some lessons to offer to other countries, in which Malaysia can learn from others as well.

Is UM's administration so incapable of seeing the value of such work? While counting itself among the institutions contributing to our worthy national ambition of being 'Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang', UM dissociates from one of its members whose work shows every potential of being excellent and widely-recognised.

But there are non-academic elements to this fiasco. Aside from campus politics, another malaise has crept into our university system - bureaucratic fundamentalism is as much related to the stagnation of higher education.

UM seems to be so bureaucratised that administrative protocol can trump the deepest principles of academic vocation. Up to their eyebrows in protocol files, the people running UM cannot see past their small world of job descriptions and standard operating procedures.

Cherished ISO certification sure doesn't help us decide if a two-year secondment to a prestigious UN research project is worth approving. An associate professor's job description, which UM's quality monitoring programme zealously spells out, doesn't stipulate UNRISD research projects.

It seems to me that no faculty should ever be in a situation that one member cannot take leave for two years to pursue a worthy cause. Fellow faculty members should be able to shoulder the teaching workload.

If UM's Faculty of Economics is so dependent on Gomez, that is a another issue that should be addressed separately. That should not get in the way of granting him two years to do good work. A respectable university would not just permit, but would commend, this secondment.

UM's pool of excellent scholars shrinks by one more. Perhaps Gomez's incisive and productive mind is too intimidating. Perhaps his capacity to engage in internationally recognised research is too strange to handle. Perhaps his willingness to resign embodies an academic dedication totally opposed to the prevalent lackadaisical countdown-to-pension attitude that permeates the system.

The state of higher education in the country is nothing short of becoming a full-blown crisis. It is pathologically politicised and wastefully bureaucratised. This crisis will not go away easily, nor quickly.

Since those who can make a difference from within seem to be leaving, it is up to our minister of higher education and our prime minister to change things from above.