The academia functions on one rule - publish or perish. Not unless a university is set up with an overt political mandate, this rule invariably holds true throughout the best academia in the world.

Therefore, to be a tenured professor at Harvard University, one has to have at least five refereed publications and two books. These works must be produced by reputable printing presses too.

At a time when many Asian and Western academics struggle to publish works of sufficient quality, Dr Edmund Terence Gomez has been an outstanding exception.

Not only has he shown the way by producing works of immense importance on Asian and Malaysian political economy, he has carefully edited numerous books that outline the intricacies of Asian capitalism.

Along the way, many outstanding PhD students have been helped and inspired by Gomez too.

His latest book on Chinese Enterprise, Transnationalism and Identity (Routledge 2005), which is co-produced with Michael Hsiao Hsin Hung, another world-class scholar in Taiwan, is perhaps the most scientific and technically rigorous work yet on the subject.

That the quality of Gomez's works is unmatched is clearly reflected by the prominent publishers that have produced them over the last 10 years. Among others, these include Cambridge University Press and Routledge Press, two of the most important names in the world of academic publishing and which all leading academics crave to be published by.

It is therefore nothing short of an extreme irony - indeed one verging on bureaucratic perniciousness - when the numerous publications of Gomez are given the short shrift in his application to Universiti Malaya for a two-year secondment to head a research project with the United Nations.

For UM, a ranking university, to turn away one of the world's brightest scholars surely must be an act reeking of self-conceit.

But there is another side to Gomez too - his intellectual bravery and commitment to the betterment of the country, and by extension, to the region at large.

Long before Malaysians knew about the political corruption of various business entities in a systematic form, Gomez risked his own freedom and physical well-being to write about it and see it through to published form.

Without a doubt, the pillars of Asian democracy are reinforced as a result of Gomez's investigative scholarship. This form of scholarship, which simultaneously serve academia and society, is not only rare but literally unheard of before.

Malaysia is better today because of the scholarly and humanitarian qualities of the likes of Gomez. Malaysia will be many times worse off if such a towering personality is asked to bend his back before he is allowed to return to UM; or even not return at all.

UM is a publicly funded institution despite its corporatisation. It owes Malaysians a moral and fiscal responsibility to keep the best brains on its campus and to ensure their return. It is not too late to begin with Gomez who is clearly Malaysia's and the region's leading scholar-humanist and gentleman.