LETTER | Bruce Gilley works at Mark O Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University.

The university ranks between 1,201 and 1,400 in 2024 in the QS University World rankings and has been in steep decline for several years.

Its political science department which Gilley heads is ranked 301 out of 607 Best Political Science and Government Schools in the US for 2024.

This should give some inkling of the reputation and credentials of Gilley. UM has a QS University World ranking of 65 for 2024 and to invite speakers from less renowned institutions of learning and reputation to attempt to spark learning, thought, analysis and debates amongst the students is irresponsible and a no-brainer.

One usually learns more and excellence from our betters or wiser, there is little to learn from the prejudiced and the lesser.

Gilley has published a number of books, most seemingly anti-China. There is one which uses a Marxist theory called “Oriental Despotism” and he applies it to political theories on the Asian region and insinuates Asians prefer despots.

For his book titled “The Case for Colonialism” (self-explanatory), the Western press and academics panned him.

Thousands of academics even signed a petition to retract its publication and even many of the editorial board resigned.

The Times of London described Gilley as "probably the academic most likely to be no-platformed in Britain”.

The New York Times called him one of the "panicky white bros" who "proclaim ever more rowdily that the (white) West was, and is, best" and are "busy recyclers of Western supremacism”.

As an American academic with a selective memory of the Holocaust, Gilley should look into the 1939 tragedy of the liner St. Louis carrying over 900 Jews fleeing from fascist Germany.

The US was not willing to admit these Jewish refugees into their country because the Great Depression had fuelled antisemitism, xenophobia, nativism and isolationism.

Antisemitism did not suddenly appear in the 20th century. In Europe, antisemitism has been in existence for thousands of years and Jewish ghettos are a testament to the disdain, hatred and discrimination by the “European Gentiles”.

The Jews were blamed for the Black Death and were massacred by the thousands. They were also randomly blamed for witchcraft, blasphemy and usury and persecuted or even murdered without recourse to justice.

I abhor what I have seen in Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Linz and Schindler’s Factory in Krakow even though these are only museums with exhibits.

When the killing started in these places, it was not only the Jews but later included minorities like the gipsies and dissidents of the Third Reich.

These places shine a grim light on antisemitism, or any genocide of any people that has occurred. Such places must always tell us to never allow the practice and human need of projecting immediate social fears and hatreds on others and treat them as those who caused societal ills.

The Holocaust will always be banded around by many Europeans and their leaders as a penance for their thousand years of antisemitism.

Gilley wants to foist his ancestral sin on others by claiming a “second Holocaust” when we deplore and cry for a stop to the relentless attacks and destruction of Palestine and the genocide of its people.

Gilley, as a political scientist sounds naive and not a bright bulb when he said a country whose political leaders “advocate a second Holocaust against the Jewish people will never be a serious player in world affairs and will certainly never be a friend or partner of the US”.

The US will always be a nation which selfishly looks after its own interests, period. The US government will be your friend and partner so long a country has some minerals, resources, commodities or strategic value they need - no matter how heinous, undemocratic and despotic the ruling regime is.

Major gaffe

There has been a major gaffe and irresponsibility in inviting Gilley over. He very likely was bamboozled but happily took on this unexpected junket and used it to cause some controversy to boost his university and department’s waning academia rankings and standards and promote his white supremacist leanings.

He would seem to have achieved what he is good at and set out to do, caused controversy, kicked Universiti Malaya and the nation in the teeth and likely achieved his 15 minutes of fame with the right-wing news agencies and Islamophobic rednecks back in the US.

A lesson for all at UM, read widely and do your research and yes, Gilley’s works if you can.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.