Singapore judge denies making plagiarism charge

A Singapore judge has denied he had accused a Malaysian judge of plagiarising his judgment, the office of the Chief Justice said today.

Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria's special officer 1, Che Wan Zaidi Che Wan Ibrahim, said in a statement retired Singapore judge GP Selvam denied to the office, in writing, that he had made such an allegation.

Che Wan Zaidi said Selvam wrote the letter dated Nov 2, 2011, on his own free will and his own words state:

"Finally, it is untrue that I lodged a complaint with the government about plagiarism. There was nothing for me to complain on the ground of plagiarism and that too directly to a neighbour government....

"I repeat I did not make a complaint and there was no cause to complain about plagiarism against a Malaysian judge."

Letter, other documents helped decision

Che Wan Zaidi said the Chief Justice took the letter and other documents in arriving at his decision on Dec 30, 2011, to dismissthe complaint against the Court of Appeal judge.

The other documents are:

• Karpal's letter dated Sept 29, 2011;

• The reply to Karpal's letter dated Oct 27,, 2011;

• Justice Abdul Malik Ishak's letter dated Dec 29, 2011;

• The written judgment of Abdul Malik in the Pet Far Eastern (M) Sdn Bhd vs Tay Young Huat & ORS [1999] 5 MLJ 558; and

• Selvam's written judgment in the Star Cruise Services Ltd vs Overseas Union Bank Ltd (1999).

Karpal, who is DAP national chairperson and Bukit Gelugor MP, had earlier called on Abdul Malik to resign over the plagiarism allegation.

According to him, the judge had, ironically, plagiarised former Singapore judge GP Selvam's judgment on a copyright issue.

Cabinet minister Rais Yatim has confirmed that when he was de facto law minister, such an official complaint had, indeed, been lodged against the judge in the year 2000.