The letter Tie university funding to research performance gives some considered views.

So what comes next if the writer's facts, analyses and conclusions are correct? Would changing Universiti Malaya's vice-chancellor, as some call for, be the panacea? Not likely I think, because the VC is merely implementing government policy.

There is probably no effective solution available at the university level because nobody there makes policy. Would the government then change its policies or could the government be persuaded to change them, and the relevant laws?

After all, we should be concerned not just about UM but all Malaysian public universities unless this whole thing about the Edmund Terrence Gomez affair was a very limited exercise.

The Gomez letter-to-the-editor team should therefore switch its aim to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. If the government-of-the-day sticks to its policies, the letter writers, who I hope are Malaysian citizens registered to vote, should next time get out and vote and throw the rascals out.

Ultimately, those who have blown hot and hotter on this issue should be concerned enough about the state of Malaysian higher education to also think and act on the issue. People of substance living in civilised societies would not merely moan, groan, bellyache and whine.