The pace of my academic life continued to pick up even after the dust finally settled on the Baling demonstrations. Even with the implementation of the Universities and University Colleges Act, the academics on campus tried to maintain a semblance of normality in their teaching and research work. And with the adoption of the Harun Commission Report, academic terms and conditions of service improved, but the bureaucratization of academia had begun. Over the next five years I managed to strike a balance between teaching, research and administrative work that were typical of the life of an academic. But I had kept up such a pace in these activities that Terry McGee, after five years of my returning to Malaysia worried that I might suffer a premature burn-out if I didn’t slow down. I noted but didn’t heed his advice. Besides teaching young students, the biggest joy for me was the conduct of policy research. And there were plenty of these issues on the table in the first decade of the implementation of the New Economic Policy, which was launched while I was still in training overseas.
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