Support for Dr. Azly Rahman and Dr. Mutiara Mohamed

The issues facing Dr. Azly Rahman and Dr. Mutiara Mohamed has been highlighted in this blog before by Tony and myself. With UUM firing the next salvo against Dr. Rahman and Dr. Mohamed, I can't help but even sympathize more with the plight of these two distinguished Malaysian scholars.

It was recently reported in Malaysiakini that UUM is seeking 1.25RM million in compensation from Dr. Rahman and Dr. Mohamed and at the same time, casting aspersions on the character of both these academics in regards to the reasons why they didn't want to come back to UUM. It was not really because of the reluctance on their parts of not wanting to sign the Akujanji pledge (which sounds like a bad word to me) but that they didn't want to return to Malaysia despite being given four extensions by the university.

In return, Dr. Rahman and Dr. Mutiara wrote a reply outlining the circumstances under which they had to do complete their PhD including:

* Having to endure extreme financial, and economic hardship as a direct aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 that happened at the beginning of our studies, in which we were suddenly living below the American poverty line with the loss of 75 percent of our finances and had to take up minimum-wage jobs while attending graduate school and supporting our family,

* Having a loved one with a terminal illness that consequently resulted in death,

* Dr Mutiara Mohamad experiencing years of debilitating medical condition in which it has recently culminated in a major surgery,

* Undergoing numerous hospital and specialist's visits when one of our children underwent diagnosis for the causes of his unilateral loss of hearing,

* Undergoing the long process of rigorous requirement of Columbia University doctoral candidacy (90 graduate credits and two comprehensive exams plus a dissertation),

* Having to go through the long and arduous process of preparing a Columbia University dissertation report,

* Needing several changes of dissertation advisors, and having to coordinate for the availability of the full dissertation committee for the final defence,

* Experiencing the emotional trauma from the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers which happened literally in our backyard,

* Enduring the discontinuation of scholarships and all forms of financial aid from UUM towards the end of our studies, and a host of other hardships we which finally overcame and persevered through even when all means of economic resources had dried out.

Being a PhD student myself, I can totally empathize with Dr. Rahman and Dr. Mohamed's situations while they tried to complete their PhD. New York is an expensive and often difficult place to live in, especially if you have kids and are living on graduate student wages. Their personal circumstances and other extraordinary events, such as the 9/11 attacks, could only have made a difficult process even more difficult.

Asking for extensions is quite normal for a US PhD student since most Malaysian universities give only 3 years for a PhD to be completed while a US PhD usually takes 5 or 6 years to complete. What more, given the personal circumstances of Dr. Rahman and Dr. Mohamed.

My brief reading of both their bios (here and here) indicate to me that these are two highly capable academics, the likes of which Malaysia should be proud to have. Both completed their PhDs in Columbia, one of the top universities in the US and one which few Malaysians are accepted to at both the undergraduate but especially the graduate level.

The fact that these two obviously capable and well published academics are not treated with respect by a local university doesn't give me confidence that our public universities with be able to attract enough of this type of talent to take our public universities to the next level.

On my part, I'll be hoping and praying that Dr. Rahman and Dr. Mohamed manage to resolve their issues with UUM and perhaps one day, even teach and contribute to the building up of our public universities, which from what I've read, both are keen to do.