brendan pereira - of spades and moments of truth
My earlier bit: Rocky’s Bru and Jeff Ooi makes an extremely sharp catch. The NST Group Editor a plagiarist? A copy-cat? I’ve read through the evidence, and my view is that it is conclusive, and it is damning.
These links from Jeff: Mr. Pereira’s article (pdf), Mitch Albom’s article (pdf), Jeff’s comparison (pdf).
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Definitions of plagiarism: Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster
Where I went to Uni, plagiarism was treated as a sin roughly on the same scale as say cold blooded murder (not that all of us heeded the lesson, kononnya). I do believe journalists adhere to a very similar code.
I tried not to jump to conclusions, and read the comparisons very closely. I strongly encourage you to do the same. Links to both articles are still up and live at time of writing.
Against that same available evidence, I asked myself, was it an acknowledged imitation (such as is common in all creative arts)? Was it coincidence? Was it subconscious borrowing?
All this and more I tried to ask, and I can’t say any of the answers I was forced to give came anywhere close to a ‘yes’.
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The destruction of a man’s career is no trite business. While graver sinners, such as Jasin MP Dtk Mohd Said bin Yusof, may still roam free, one might still sympathise with the personal turmoil experienced these days by say our Dtk Zakaria of Klang.
Nonetheless, human sympathy aside, a spade is a spade and plagiarism is plagiarism. To my mind, there is no recourse for Mr. Pereira. This is his defnining moment.
Should he do anything short of come clean about his misdoing and take all the drastic, appropriate action, I reckon Mr. Pereira would be doing no less than renouncing all claims to any semblence of honour.
His only hope to salvage any dignity at all is a full and unreserved confession and apology, a resignation in all likelihood, and firm commitment to steer away from any attempts to wiggle out of responsibility, put some ridiculous spin or make any kind of denial at all.
There is already a chorus of ’shame! shame!’ But I would personally like to reserve joining that chorus until we see what Mr. Pereira does in response.
[...] I don’t have much to add to my previous post, and I hate the idea of seeking to ‘destroy’ a man’s reputation. I just really can’t stand for people to get away scot free when they’ve done something so wrong in the public sphere, especially by using the buat tak tau strategy, grrr. (the article is still up even, in all its plagiarist glory :| ) So for now at least, I’m going to be harping on this. Remember, Mr. P, your window of honorable opportunity is closing fast. [...]