Universiti Malaya (UM) academician Dr Edmund Terence Gomez was told this morning that he should speak out on matters involving public interest - the encouragement came from Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The two met for 15 minutes at the Royal Air Force base in Subang this morning, following arrangements made by the premier's special assistant last Saturday. Abdullah then left for a working visit in Hong Kong to attend a meeting of the Pacific Basin Economic Council.

"He said that when he told Malaysians 'to speak the truth to me', he had meant what he said," Gomez told malaysiakini when contacted.

He also said the premier had congratulated him on his appointment to the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) to lead a research project based in Geneva.

"The PM was interested in the research and requested that his office be kept informed about this as well as other work at UNRISD, particularly on ways to eradicate poverty. He said it is important for his office to be updated as this could be used to inform policy planning.

"I thanked the prime minister for his intervention in the matter involving the UM management's rejection of my leave application to (to enable my) secondment to UNRISD," he added.

Leaving tomorrow

Gomez will leave for Geneva tomorrow to report for duty on the project which will see global research being conducted on racial conflict over the next two years.

On May 8, he was forced to tender his resignation as associate professor of political economy at UM's Faculty of Economics and Administration, after the university management rejected his application for leave in order to take up the secondment.

Following a public outcry and calls for the decision to the reconsidered, the government over-ruled the decision last Friday and approved unpaid leave Gomez and revoked his resignation.

His wife, Dr Sharmani Patricia Gabriel, who lectures English at the same university, was also denied two years' unpaid leave to join him in Geneva.

The management did not deem her request, sent via e-mail on May 20, as a formal application.

However, she has since sent a formal application and is awaiting a response from the university.