Kuala Lampur, March 8 -- A few years ago, at a conference on human rights and democracy, a senior academic pulled me aside after my talk and said, "You make strong arguments, but be careful. You don't want to be seen as an activist."

I had heard this before.

At conferences, in academic discussions, even in casual conversations, people would ask with scepticism, "Are you from an NGO?"-as if working with civil society somehow discredited scholarly work.

The underlying message was clear: serious academics should observe, analyse, and critique from a distance, but never engage too closely with real-world struggles. A scholar can study politics but must never be seen as political.

Why was activism framed as a liability rather than a respon...