Showing posts with label Jeffrey Sachs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeffrey Sachs. Show all posts
Friday, January 11, 2008
Too harsh on Sachs?
Perhaps I've been too hard on Jeffrey Sachs. Jeff Ooi blogged about how Sachs brought up some development issues which the Malaysian government needed to take into account in the state of Sabah. Plus, you can see some shots of Sachs visiting some of the more rural and poorer parts of Sabah, which is not usual for a renowned academic to do. Hopefully, he'll publish a paper evaluating both the successes and shortcomings of the government's policies on poverty reduction, especially in states like Sabah and Sarawak.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Another Sachs UM pilgrimage
Jeffrey Sachs is in Malaysia again for another 'Praise Malaysia to the High Heavens' UM tour. To be fair to him, I didn't think that he would come back to Malaysia so soon (it's winter break in the US). I thought that he'd only be back in summer. Furthermore, he might have said some more critical things about Malaysia's poverty eradication schemes but it might not have been reported. He could also be conducting genuine poverty research when he's not giving his rehashed speeches. And his latest bio, updated in January 2008 (this month), still does not state his affiliation with the UM, which defeats the purpose of using him to raise the profile of UM internationally.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Sachs came, Sachs spoke, Sachs left
Sorry for the long delay since the last post. Term just started for my last week and I was getting back into the swing of things back in school. For regular readers of this blog, you would know that I have been keeping track of Jeffrey Sachs appointment as the first chair of the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies at the UM. This was first announced in November, 2006 and you can read my posts about this issue here and here. He finally came to Malaysia in the middle of August, a couple of weeks back. I've been critical of UM's decision to award this chair to Professor Sachs namely because I don't think it is cost effective and I don't really think that Prof Sachs can do justice in terms of academic contribution to his post. Instead of criticizing MOHE and UM again, I think I'll take a swipe at Prof Sachs this time.
Ever since his appointment was announced, I've been keeping track periodically for news feeds regarding Prof Sachs as well as trying to see if there were any changes to his bio, primarily to see if the press here in the US or other Western countries would pick up on his appointment as well as to see if he would indicate on his bio in Columbia's Earth Institute website, where he's the director, that he had taken up this post in Malaysia.
Like I've said before, it's not common for a professor to hold more than 1 chair in more than one university at a single point in time, primarily because this requires a professor to share his or her time between more than one university. Most universities prefer not to have this kind of arrangement since they want to have 'exclusive claim', if you will to a professor's time and name. Most professors also do not want to have more than one appointment since this means that they have to do work (teaching, admin duties, faculty meetings etc...) for more than one university which leaves them with less time to do their real research. Even academic superstars such as Paul Krugman, teach or are associated with one university at a single point in time. (Krugman recently moved from MIT to Princeton)
There are some professors who can negotiate for special arrangements with their universities but many of them do so for personal reasons. For example, I have a professor here at Duke who spends one semester at England and one semester in at Duke because he's English and his family is back home in England and his research agenda requires him to spend part of in Europe. But I also imagine that part of this arrangement also requires him to be paid less by both institutions, probably splitting his salary 50/50 or thereabouts.
So here's my first beef with Prof Sachs. I think that UM is paying him tons of money to take up this chair but gets little in return. In one of my previous post, I estimated that it probably costs the UM / MOHE somewhere in the range of RM2 to 3 million annually to recruit Prof Sachs to his post. And this appointment is for 2 years. But he is not required to do any teaching or any advising, as far as I know. I'm not sure how much research he can do given that he probably spends less than two weeks in a year in Malaysia! If he was appointed in November last year and he came to Malaysia for one to one and a half weeks in August, this is pretty good money for 2 weeks worth of 'work'. (more like rehashed lectures and platitudes) If he knows that he cannot dedicate a sufficient amount of time and effort towards some sort of academic contribution as the Chair of Poverty Studies at UM, why take it in the first place? It surely can't be only because of money since by all accounts, Prof Sachs is already a wealthy man.
The job description of the Chair and the Centre of Poverty Studies seems like quite a handful. It can be found at this link.
The objectives of the Chair and the Centre are to:
- Serve as a focal point for academic work, research, consultancy and technical assistance in the fields of poverty and development for the academic community, the public, policy makers and the international community;
- Develop new approaches and methodologies in the study of poverty;
- Improve the understanding of life in the rural areas and amongst poverty groups;
- Help increase accessibility to information pertaining to rural communities and poverty groups;
- Disseminate information through the creation of databases, publications, seminars,
conferences, workshops, the internet and the media;
- Contribute towards capacity building in the rural areas especially amongst the poor;
- Encourage the incorporation of local and indigenous knowledge in the development process.
This doesn't seem like something which a Chair can accomplish by spending 2 months in the country, not to mention 2 weeks.
Of course, it could be that Prof Sachs has taken a salary cut from Columbia because of his appointment at the UM. It could be that Prof Sachs is not costing UM RM2 to 3 million ringgit a year (or even half of that). It could be that his appointment beings only in 2007 and not in 2006 as originally announced and so he's only beginning to ramp up his participation and responsibilities as the Chair of Poverty Studies at the UM. I hope that this is the case.
But as far as I know, Prof Sachs is back in the US and will only return to Malaysia sometime in January next year to look at the poverty rate among orang aslis or to do some work regarding poverty in Kelantan, I'm not sure which.
My second beef with Prof Sachs is that if he's been appointed to this Chair, why hasn't he updated his CV at Columbia to indicate this appointment? He obviously updates this now and then since there are some details there in regards to some of this activities in 2007.
As important, why hasn't he made any announcement here in the US with regards to this appointment? It was made big news in Malaysia but the US press was ignorant of this appointment. If UM was hoping that this appointment would give more name recognition to UM here in the US or in other developed nations, I think they have to be somewhat disappointed at the lack of publicity in the media outside Malaysia. I've been keeping track of news feeds from google news over the past year periodically checking on new on Jeffrey Sachs but have found no mention of this appointment in any news feeds outside Malaysian papers.
(Just for fun, why don't our readers google these to see what kind of hits they find: Jeffrey Sachs Chair Poverty Studies, Jeffrey Sachs Universiti Malaya)
Of course, it could be overreaction on my part since Prof Sachs might be just waiting for his appointment details to be confirmed before putting up these details on his website.
But of course, there could be other reasons as to why Prof Sachs might not want to make to big of a deal in regards to this appointment within the US and also within Columbia.
There will certainly be some criticism of his association with the UM as well as with the Malaysian government. Columbia students and faculty, more so than students and faculty in other US universities, are more familiar with the internal politics in Malaysia and are likely to be critical of the lack of democracy within Malaysia. Columbia is a university known to be associated with political dissidents. Many of the student activists from Tian An Men landed up in Columbia. Anwar Ibrahim has been a frequent visitor to Columbia before his arrest and after his release. His last visit to Columbia was probably in January 2006. The UM is also the place which terminated the contract of Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, probably one of Malaysia's best known academics (together with Prof Jomo).
This is pure speculation on my part but Prof Sachs is probably smart enough to know that his appointment to the UM would draw some some attention within Columbia University from faculty as well as students which explains why he's been relatively quiet about this appointment here in the US.
My last beef with Prof Sachs is related to this point. He's smart enough to know that his appointment it not purely an 'academic' one. He's smart enough to know that he's at such a high level of prominence that he won't be able to spend much time doing the 'real' research and administrative duties which a Chair must assume. Hence, the 'deal' must have been something like this - we give you a generous financial package, you don't need to do much real research, just come to Malaysia and tell us good things about ourselves.
While it is true that Malaysia has done a lot to reduce poverty and probably has one of the best poverty reduction rates among developed countries (better than most African and Asian countries but not as good as Korea, Singapore or Taiwan all of which were as poor as some African countries 50 years ago but are now all richer than Malaysia), Prof Sachs seems to have ignored the other problems in Malaysia such as government corruption, urban poverty, poverty among the orang Aslis and in east Malaysia (which is maybe why he wants to do some work in this area), the rising level of income inequality, distortions within the Malaysian economy as a result of government policies and so forth.
(For a list of newspaper reports covering his speeches, see here, here and here)
Does Prof Sachs feel comfortable in his role as an unofficial spokesperson for the Malaysian government and the Malaysian government's policies? This seems to be stepping out of the bounds of what a respected academic should do.
I'm sure that this is not the last I'll be blogging about this issue. I stand to be corrected on many of these points when and where more details are known (such as Prof Sachs arrangement with Columbia, the terms and conditions of his UM appointment, the amount of time and the kind of research he'll be doing in Malaysia etc...) But as things stand, I have to say that I'm quite disappointed with Prof Sachs for taking up this appointment as Chair of Poverty Studies at the UM and the manner in which he has not made this appointment known within Columbia and the US academic community.
Ever since his appointment was announced, I've been keeping track periodically for news feeds regarding Prof Sachs as well as trying to see if there were any changes to his bio, primarily to see if the press here in the US or other Western countries would pick up on his appointment as well as to see if he would indicate on his bio in Columbia's Earth Institute website, where he's the director, that he had taken up this post in Malaysia.
Like I've said before, it's not common for a professor to hold more than 1 chair in more than one university at a single point in time, primarily because this requires a professor to share his or her time between more than one university. Most universities prefer not to have this kind of arrangement since they want to have 'exclusive claim', if you will to a professor's time and name. Most professors also do not want to have more than one appointment since this means that they have to do work (teaching, admin duties, faculty meetings etc...) for more than one university which leaves them with less time to do their real research. Even academic superstars such as Paul Krugman, teach or are associated with one university at a single point in time. (Krugman recently moved from MIT to Princeton)
There are some professors who can negotiate for special arrangements with their universities but many of them do so for personal reasons. For example, I have a professor here at Duke who spends one semester at England and one semester in at Duke because he's English and his family is back home in England and his research agenda requires him to spend part of in Europe. But I also imagine that part of this arrangement also requires him to be paid less by both institutions, probably splitting his salary 50/50 or thereabouts.
So here's my first beef with Prof Sachs. I think that UM is paying him tons of money to take up this chair but gets little in return. In one of my previous post, I estimated that it probably costs the UM / MOHE somewhere in the range of RM2 to 3 million annually to recruit Prof Sachs to his post. And this appointment is for 2 years. But he is not required to do any teaching or any advising, as far as I know. I'm not sure how much research he can do given that he probably spends less than two weeks in a year in Malaysia! If he was appointed in November last year and he came to Malaysia for one to one and a half weeks in August, this is pretty good money for 2 weeks worth of 'work'. (more like rehashed lectures and platitudes) If he knows that he cannot dedicate a sufficient amount of time and effort towards some sort of academic contribution as the Chair of Poverty Studies at UM, why take it in the first place? It surely can't be only because of money since by all accounts, Prof Sachs is already a wealthy man.
The job description of the Chair and the Centre of Poverty Studies seems like quite a handful. It can be found at this link.
The objectives of the Chair and the Centre are to:
- Serve as a focal point for academic work, research, consultancy and technical assistance in the fields of poverty and development for the academic community, the public, policy makers and the international community;
- Develop new approaches and methodologies in the study of poverty;
- Improve the understanding of life in the rural areas and amongst poverty groups;
- Help increase accessibility to information pertaining to rural communities and poverty groups;
- Disseminate information through the creation of databases, publications, seminars,
conferences, workshops, the internet and the media;
- Contribute towards capacity building in the rural areas especially amongst the poor;
- Encourage the incorporation of local and indigenous knowledge in the development process.
This doesn't seem like something which a Chair can accomplish by spending 2 months in the country, not to mention 2 weeks.
Of course, it could be that Prof Sachs has taken a salary cut from Columbia because of his appointment at the UM. It could be that Prof Sachs is not costing UM RM2 to 3 million ringgit a year (or even half of that). It could be that his appointment beings only in 2007 and not in 2006 as originally announced and so he's only beginning to ramp up his participation and responsibilities as the Chair of Poverty Studies at the UM. I hope that this is the case.
But as far as I know, Prof Sachs is back in the US and will only return to Malaysia sometime in January next year to look at the poverty rate among orang aslis or to do some work regarding poverty in Kelantan, I'm not sure which.
My second beef with Prof Sachs is that if he's been appointed to this Chair, why hasn't he updated his CV at Columbia to indicate this appointment? He obviously updates this now and then since there are some details there in regards to some of this activities in 2007.
As important, why hasn't he made any announcement here in the US with regards to this appointment? It was made big news in Malaysia but the US press was ignorant of this appointment. If UM was hoping that this appointment would give more name recognition to UM here in the US or in other developed nations, I think they have to be somewhat disappointed at the lack of publicity in the media outside Malaysia. I've been keeping track of news feeds from google news over the past year periodically checking on new on Jeffrey Sachs but have found no mention of this appointment in any news feeds outside Malaysian papers.
(Just for fun, why don't our readers google these to see what kind of hits they find: Jeffrey Sachs Chair Poverty Studies, Jeffrey Sachs Universiti Malaya)
Of course, it could be overreaction on my part since Prof Sachs might be just waiting for his appointment details to be confirmed before putting up these details on his website.
But of course, there could be other reasons as to why Prof Sachs might not want to make to big of a deal in regards to this appointment within the US and also within Columbia.
There will certainly be some criticism of his association with the UM as well as with the Malaysian government. Columbia students and faculty, more so than students and faculty in other US universities, are more familiar with the internal politics in Malaysia and are likely to be critical of the lack of democracy within Malaysia. Columbia is a university known to be associated with political dissidents. Many of the student activists from Tian An Men landed up in Columbia. Anwar Ibrahim has been a frequent visitor to Columbia before his arrest and after his release. His last visit to Columbia was probably in January 2006. The UM is also the place which terminated the contract of Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, probably one of Malaysia's best known academics (together with Prof Jomo).
This is pure speculation on my part but Prof Sachs is probably smart enough to know that his appointment to the UM would draw some some attention within Columbia University from faculty as well as students which explains why he's been relatively quiet about this appointment here in the US.
My last beef with Prof Sachs is related to this point. He's smart enough to know that his appointment it not purely an 'academic' one. He's smart enough to know that he's at such a high level of prominence that he won't be able to spend much time doing the 'real' research and administrative duties which a Chair must assume. Hence, the 'deal' must have been something like this - we give you a generous financial package, you don't need to do much real research, just come to Malaysia and tell us good things about ourselves.
While it is true that Malaysia has done a lot to reduce poverty and probably has one of the best poverty reduction rates among developed countries (better than most African and Asian countries but not as good as Korea, Singapore or Taiwan all of which were as poor as some African countries 50 years ago but are now all richer than Malaysia), Prof Sachs seems to have ignored the other problems in Malaysia such as government corruption, urban poverty, poverty among the orang Aslis and in east Malaysia (which is maybe why he wants to do some work in this area), the rising level of income inequality, distortions within the Malaysian economy as a result of government policies and so forth.
(For a list of newspaper reports covering his speeches, see here, here and here)
Does Prof Sachs feel comfortable in his role as an unofficial spokesperson for the Malaysian government and the Malaysian government's policies? This seems to be stepping out of the bounds of what a respected academic should do.
I'm sure that this is not the last I'll be blogging about this issue. I stand to be corrected on many of these points when and where more details are known (such as Prof Sachs arrangement with Columbia, the terms and conditions of his UM appointment, the amount of time and the kind of research he'll be doing in Malaysia etc...) But as things stand, I have to say that I'm quite disappointed with Prof Sachs for taking up this appointment as Chair of Poverty Studies at the UM and the manner in which he has not made this appointment known within Columbia and the US academic community.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Sachs finally coming to Malaysia?
Looks like the first Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University is finally coming to Malaysia. His appointment was announced and made last November and was highlighted here in this blog. Since then, I've heard from a source that he's had a phone call with Tok Pah, Minister for Higher Education and now, he'll be coming in August of this year to deliver a keynote speech at the Faculty of Economics and Administration (FEA) at the UM.
A recent online search on Jeffrey Sachs and UM revealed this tentative program for a conference on poverty alleviation organized by the Faculty of Economics and Administration (where KS Jomo taught and were Terence Gomez taught before his secondment to the UN in Geneva).
According to this program, the conference entitled "Poverty Distribution Amidst Diversity: Options and Challenges for Development" will be held on Aug 13 and 14, 2007. Prof Sachs will give the keynote address and be a discussant on a higher powered panel which includes Tok Pah and Max Ongkili, Minister in the PM's office in charge of National Unity and Integration and Dr. Denison Jayasooria of the Yayasan Strategik Sosial (YSS).
I've said this before and I'll say it again - the appointment of Professor Sachs to this position is a waste of taxpayers funds and does not fulfill the objectives set out by the UM.
Prof Sachs, in his two year appointment will probably come to Malaysia once a year, given his many other commitments. While in Malaysia, he'll be asked to deliver a few keynote addresses, in the UM and in other settings, set up for him by the University or the MOHE. He won't be able to contribute any significant intellectual contribution to UM or Malaysia in terms of research or advising faculty or graduate students or teaching.
In contrast, Prof Joan Nelson, the third holder of the Pok Rafeah chair at IKMAS, UKM, was / is based in Malaysia for a length of time (9 months, if I'm not mistaken) and was an active contributor to the intellectual and research life at IKMAS in UKM. This is the model that UM should have used - appointing a researcher who had a genuine interest in Malaysia and who would be able to be based in Malaysia for some length of time to be part of the academic and intellectual community.
Furthermore, Professor Jeffrey "mention-his-name-to-any-economist-and-they-will-drop-when-they-hear-it" Sachs (quote is attributed to the current UM VC) doesn't even list his appointment as the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies in his most recent CV, thereby not fulfilling one of UM's objectives of appointing Jeffrey Sachs - which is to raise UM's profile internationally.
Too bad I can't be at the UM to take part in the above conference. It would have been interesting to ask Prof Sachs what he hopes to achieve in his two year appointment. And to ask the VC whether she thinks that appointing Prof Sachs was worth the cost.
A recent online search on Jeffrey Sachs and UM revealed this tentative program for a conference on poverty alleviation organized by the Faculty of Economics and Administration (where KS Jomo taught and were Terence Gomez taught before his secondment to the UN in Geneva).
According to this program, the conference entitled "Poverty Distribution Amidst Diversity: Options and Challenges for Development" will be held on Aug 13 and 14, 2007. Prof Sachs will give the keynote address and be a discussant on a higher powered panel which includes Tok Pah and Max Ongkili, Minister in the PM's office in charge of National Unity and Integration and Dr. Denison Jayasooria of the Yayasan Strategik Sosial (YSS).
I've said this before and I'll say it again - the appointment of Professor Sachs to this position is a waste of taxpayers funds and does not fulfill the objectives set out by the UM.
Prof Sachs, in his two year appointment will probably come to Malaysia once a year, given his many other commitments. While in Malaysia, he'll be asked to deliver a few keynote addresses, in the UM and in other settings, set up for him by the University or the MOHE. He won't be able to contribute any significant intellectual contribution to UM or Malaysia in terms of research or advising faculty or graduate students or teaching.
In contrast, Prof Joan Nelson, the third holder of the Pok Rafeah chair at IKMAS, UKM, was / is based in Malaysia for a length of time (9 months, if I'm not mistaken) and was an active contributor to the intellectual and research life at IKMAS in UKM. This is the model that UM should have used - appointing a researcher who had a genuine interest in Malaysia and who would be able to be based in Malaysia for some length of time to be part of the academic and intellectual community.
Furthermore, Professor Jeffrey "mention-his-name-to-any-economist-and-they-will-drop-when-they-hear-it" Sachs (quote is attributed to the current UM VC) doesn't even list his appointment as the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies in his most recent CV, thereby not fulfilling one of UM's objectives of appointing Jeffrey Sachs - which is to raise UM's profile internationally.
Too bad I can't be at the UM to take part in the above conference. It would have been interesting to ask Prof Sachs what he hopes to achieve in his two year appointment. And to ask the VC whether she thinks that appointing Prof Sachs was worth the cost.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Jeffrey Sachs Mentioned by UM VC yet again
It's the job of any university's VC to defend the reputation and stature of his or her university. It's also our responsibility as bloggers to call individual VCs out if we think what they've said does not make sense or is inaccurate. While defending UM's reputation, the UM VC Rafiah Salim, once again brought up the name of Professor Jeffrey Sachs in association with UM, as the first holder of the Royal Ungku Aziz chair in poverty studies.
I first brought this issue to attention in November 2006 here, expressing my great scepticism at whether this was a bona fide appointment and if it was, whether it was not just a great waste of money.
In this recent NST article, UM's VC Rafiah Salim had this to say about Jeffrey Sachs:
"At present, the person who is holding the Ungku Aziz chair is Jeffrey Sachs from the Earth Institute at University of Columbia. Now, mention his name to any economist and they will drop when they hear it."
The problem is, nobody outside UM or perhaps outside Malaysia seems to know that Sachs is actually holding this position. If you check the Earth's Institute's website here which lists Sachs' CV (and here in a 3 page pdf form), which has been updated as recently as March of 2007, there is no mention of Malaysia, UM or the Royal Ungku Aziz chair.
Among his many achievements listed:
Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Society of Fellows, and the Fellows of the World Econometric Society. He has received honorary degrees from many universities including Trinity College Dublin, the College
of the Atlantic, Southern Methodist University, Simon Fraser University, McGill University, Southern New Hamphshire University, St. John’s University, Iona College, St. Gallen University in Switzerland, the Lingnan College of Hong Kong, and Varna Economics University in Bulgaria, and an honorary professorship at Universidad del Pacifico in Peru. Distinguished lecture series include the London School of Economics, Oxford University, Tel Aviv, Jakarta, Yale and many others. He was the 2005 recipient of the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. He is a member of the Brookings Panel of Economists, the Board of Advisors of the Chinese Economists Society, among other organizations.
If honorary degrees are mentioned (and some from not so distinguished universities), why not the first holder of a fully endowed chair, especially one that is supposed to be as prestigious as the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies at the premier university in Malaysia, the University of Malaya?
I have no doubt that given the correct circumstances and incentives, Professor Sachs will eventually visit Malaysia (I think he's been to Malaysia before) and the UM to deliver a lecture or two but isn't it dishonest of UM's VC and indeed the PM (who first made the announcement) to associate him with UM before he himself has made any announcement that he has even accepted or is aware of this position being offered / given to him?
If Dr. Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) or any of his staff is reading this post, I encourage him to raise this issue in parliament since making these kinds of inaccurate statements (and giving this information to the PM and asking him to make these statements) can come back to haunt us (remember the whole fiasco about why UM was ranked in the top 100 universities by THES?). More importantly, he should also enquire as to how the expenses associated with this endowed chair (RM20 million) is being spent.
And don't even get me started on the VC being proud of the fact that UM is ranked 13th among the top universities in the OIC.
To be fair to Rafiah Salim, she did bring up some achievements which I had not known about earlier including:
- UM's accounting degree is now recognised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
- UM’s architecture degree is one of three in the region recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects in London. The others are from the Hong Kong University and the National University of Singapore.
- UM's engineering faculty had also been recently invited to be a part of the Asia-Oceanic Top Universities League on Engineering.
- UM has been invited to join the Asia Pacific Research University Organisation because it is doing so well.
Of course, these facts also need to be checked but if they are true (especially the first two), then these achievements are indeed positive ones.
In the meantime, we await the arrival of Professor Sachs to take up his position as the first holder of the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies (or for him to list it as part of his CV first).
I first brought this issue to attention in November 2006 here, expressing my great scepticism at whether this was a bona fide appointment and if it was, whether it was not just a great waste of money.
In this recent NST article, UM's VC Rafiah Salim had this to say about Jeffrey Sachs:
"At present, the person who is holding the Ungku Aziz chair is Jeffrey Sachs from the Earth Institute at University of Columbia. Now, mention his name to any economist and they will drop when they hear it."
The problem is, nobody outside UM or perhaps outside Malaysia seems to know that Sachs is actually holding this position. If you check the Earth's Institute's website here which lists Sachs' CV (and here in a 3 page pdf form), which has been updated as recently as March of 2007, there is no mention of Malaysia, UM or the Royal Ungku Aziz chair.
Among his many achievements listed:
Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Society of Fellows, and the Fellows of the World Econometric Society. He has received honorary degrees from many universities including Trinity College Dublin, the College
of the Atlantic, Southern Methodist University, Simon Fraser University, McGill University, Southern New Hamphshire University, St. John’s University, Iona College, St. Gallen University in Switzerland, the Lingnan College of Hong Kong, and Varna Economics University in Bulgaria, and an honorary professorship at Universidad del Pacifico in Peru. Distinguished lecture series include the London School of Economics, Oxford University, Tel Aviv, Jakarta, Yale and many others. He was the 2005 recipient of the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. He is a member of the Brookings Panel of Economists, the Board of Advisors of the Chinese Economists Society, among other organizations.
If honorary degrees are mentioned (and some from not so distinguished universities), why not the first holder of a fully endowed chair, especially one that is supposed to be as prestigious as the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies at the premier university in Malaysia, the University of Malaya?
I have no doubt that given the correct circumstances and incentives, Professor Sachs will eventually visit Malaysia (I think he's been to Malaysia before) and the UM to deliver a lecture or two but isn't it dishonest of UM's VC and indeed the PM (who first made the announcement) to associate him with UM before he himself has made any announcement that he has even accepted or is aware of this position being offered / given to him?
If Dr. Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) or any of his staff is reading this post, I encourage him to raise this issue in parliament since making these kinds of inaccurate statements (and giving this information to the PM and asking him to make these statements) can come back to haunt us (remember the whole fiasco about why UM was ranked in the top 100 universities by THES?). More importantly, he should also enquire as to how the expenses associated with this endowed chair (RM20 million) is being spent.
And don't even get me started on the VC being proud of the fact that UM is ranked 13th among the top universities in the OIC.
To be fair to Rafiah Salim, she did bring up some achievements which I had not known about earlier including:
- UM's accounting degree is now recognised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
- UM’s architecture degree is one of three in the region recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects in London. The others are from the Hong Kong University and the National University of Singapore.
- UM's engineering faculty had also been recently invited to be a part of the Asia-Oceanic Top Universities League on Engineering.
- UM has been invited to join the Asia Pacific Research University Organisation because it is doing so well.
Of course, these facts also need to be checked but if they are true (especially the first two), then these achievements are indeed positive ones.
In the meantime, we await the arrival of Professor Sachs to take up his position as the first holder of the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies (or for him to list it as part of his CV first).
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