Ministry: No reports against Ridhuan

An official at the Higher Education Ministry told FMT that investigations will be done once there is a formal complaint.

PETALING JAYA: The Higher Education Ministry has claimed that no reports have been lodged against academic Ridhuan Tee Abdullah who allegedly committed plagiarism.

Ridhuan, an ethnic relations lecturer in National Defence University is alleged to have plagiarised the work of Airil Yasreen Mohd Yassin of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai, Johor for an assignment.

“We have no knowledge of the alleged plagiarism. No reports have been made so far to the ministry.

“We would investigate the matter once we have a formal report,” said an official at the Higher Education Ministry who declined to be named.

Documents made available to FMT indicated that Ridhuan plagiarised entire paragraphs on “the importance of postgraduate research, research as a form of teaching and learning, research as forms of religious acts i.e. ibadah, jihad and dakwah.

The assessment was for lecturers in Grade DS51 for the Efficiency Level Assessment course (PTK4) individual assignment that was conducted from May to June 2010.

Ridhuan also declared that the work submitted is “based on my original work except for quotations and citations which have been duly acknowledged.”

The paragraphs that Ridhuan is alleged to have lifted was initially written by Airil for his research paper. It was uploaded in his blog, Airil Sametok on 25 May 2009. http://airilsametok.blogspot.com/

Ridhuan who is also a regular feature in Islam related talk shows has been in the limelight for the past two weeks after authoring an article that is demeaning to the Indians.

In the article “Kesabaran umat Islam ada had” published in Malay daily, Sinar Harian on Feb 18, Ridhuan criticised MIC for pushing for the screening of Tamil movie Vishwaroopam and went on to describe the Thaipusam festival in a demeaning manner.

Meanwhile, MIC strategy adviser S Vell Paari said an official complaint will be filed next.

“I have spoken to MIC Youth, and they will file the report with the ministry next week and submit the relevant documents. This is a serious matter and it must be probed,” he told FMT.