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strong>Feb. 4, p. 6

The article “RI as a new middle power?” by Prof. Anak Agung Banyu Perwita, published on this page on Nov. 12, 2009, is very similar to a piece written by Carl Ungerer titled “The ‘Middle Power’ Concept in Australian Foreign Policy”, which was published in the Australian Journal of Politics and History: Volume 53, Number 4, 2007, pp.538-551.

Both in terms of ideas and in the phrases used, it is very evident this is not the original work of the writer.
The Jakarta Post takes claims of plagiarism and the infringement of ideas very seriously.

We hereby withdraw the offending article by Anak Agung Banyu Perwita and apologize to our readers, most especially to Mr. Carl Ungerer, for this editorial oversight.

— The Editor


Your comments:

This article is a total embarrassment for Indonesian scholars in general, if they still have guts to call themselves scholars. This is not the first time it has happened and I am sure this will not be last.  

Indonesian scholars need to be aware that plagiarism is a serious breach of a scholar’s code of conduct and also a crime against their fellow scholars.

Ahmad Sadiq Urwah
Melbourne


If this is true, the writer should never be used as an information source.

Dy Dy
Jakarta


I am really surprised with this news. As a lecturer, he is very critical and brings fresh ideas to world politics, especially with regard to national security and strategic studies. As one of his former students, I feel embarrassed by this, no matter what the reason. As a gentle man, he should apologize to the original writer very soon.

Adi Nugroho
Denpasar


A slap in the face, it hurts, really.

Ron
Surabaya


Professors are human. Humans make mistakes. I hope this stupid mistake does not ever happen again to this professor.

He has contributed a lot of articles to The Jakarta Post, and he has great analytical skills in politics, especially international politics.

Tar
Jakarta


I think we should avoid generalizing it to “Indonesian scholars” since many do not plagiarize. The unfortunate fact is that the academic world — in Indonesia and elsewhere — does not punish idea thieves severely enough. Unless, of course, you’re a college student, such as the one being supervised by this professor.

Arya Gaduh
Los Angeles


Copying from one is plagiarism; copying from two is research!

Potanginanyo
Jakarta


Try taking a look at the link below: http://www.pikiran-rakyat.com/prprint.php?mib=beritadetail&id =33307.

It says that this guy really dislikes plagiarism (or copy and paste), especially if it is done by one of his students. He immediately deletes the name and judges the plagiarist a person who has no fighting spirit.
And questions how a student with poor English is able to write a paper with excellent English within such a short period of time.

What a hypocrite!

Abas Priari
Jakarta


It’s so embarrassing to publish someone else’s work without acknowledging it. Although he’s a professor, he made a rookie mistake commonly done by first year undergraduate students.

The same thing happened to Prof. David Robinson, a former vice chancellor of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia in the past. The result was that he resigned (some people say he was expelled) from the position. There’s no such thing as “unintentional plagiarism” as  Banyu states on his private Facebook account.

I doubt that Banyu was unaware of this issue when he was writing the article. I believe he understands very well how to avoid plagiarism by using tools like the Harvard referencing system, or something else, as he did his postgraduate studies at overseas universities, hence he would have been aware of this issue and familiar with the referencing system and tools. However, this needs to be proved by the disciplinary committee of Parahyangan Catholic University (Unpar).

If it is proved beyond question, then it is necessary for his tenure to be canceled. I believe if the university does so, Unpar will be acknowledged for its consistency against plagiarism and the heavy penalty for everyone who does it, especially those who sit in senior positions.

Rookie
Jakarta


It is a disaster for the well-known private university in Bandung.

Holahoop
Jakarta
 

It seems that Prof. Anak Agung Banyu Perwita is following the trend in universities nowadays — he is following the culture of “cut and paste”, which is part of the Internet culture.

During the pre-Internet era, researchers pored through books, journals and other periodicals in half-lit libraries and manually wrote sentences or passages onto cards, to be later typed by typewriters into articles and, in the process, modifying the original sentences etc.

Nowadays, it is easier to find articles on the Internet, copy the material and paste it in “your” article modifying the words or sentences without proper referencing and claim the article as “yours”.

Prof. Anak Agung Banyu Perwita is a victim of his own success, as he has proved that he can write on his own considering that he completed his PhD at Flinders University in Australia and his master’s degree at Lancaster University in the UK, but, probably due to time constraints, he took a shortcut, which he will regret for the rest of his life.

Maketab Mohamed
Kuala Lumpur