November 12, 2024
JAKARTA – Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta has formed a team to investigate alleged plagiarism committed by its lecturers after the accusation went viral on social media.
UGM’s Faculty of Cultural Science dean Setiadi said in a statement on Nov. 4 that a team had been assigned to investigate the alleged plagiarism, with the results to be announced to the public shortly, without detailing the team members’ identities or the investigation deadline.
“The Faculty of Cultural Sciences leadership is taking the alleged plagiarism very seriously,” Setiadi, who is an anthropology professor, said on Monday.
The alleged plagiarism went viral last week after social media user X Bernando J. Sujibto reuploaded British historian Peter Carey’s comment on a culinary historian’s Facebook post about plagiarism.
In his comment, Carey said that it was difficult to find integrity in the academic world in Indonesia.
“A number of historians at the most prestigious universities in southern Central Java have copied all of my research on the rebellion of the Regent Wedana of Madiun, Raden Ronggo Prawirodirjo III (1779-1810), to get a contract from Madiun, East Java, to write a new biography of Raden Ronggo and a new history of Madiun since the 17th century,” Carey said in his social media post.
Social media users linked Carey’s statement to the books Madiun: Sejarah Politik dan Transformasi Kepemerintahan dari Abad XIV ke Abad XXI (Madiun: History of Politics and Government Transformation from the 14th Century to the 21st Century) and Raden Rangga Prawiradirdja III Bupati Madiun 1796-1810: Sebuah Biografi Politik (Raden Rangga Prawiradirdja III Madiun Regent 1796-1810: A Political Biography).
The books were compiled by several UGM lecturers, including Sri Margana, Agus Suwignyo, Baha’Uddin, Abdul Wahid and Uji Nugroho Winardi, in a joint project with the Madiun regency administration.
Raden Rangga Prawiradirja was the father-in-law of Prince Diponegoro, who led a five-year campaign against Dutch colonial rule in the 19th century, a prominent historical figure studied by Carey.
The two books are suspected of using plagiarized material from Carey’s works Kuasa Ramalan (Prophecy Power), a three-volume book about Diponegoro’s life story published by Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia (KPG).
Sri Margana, in his post on X, said the alleged plagiarism had been resolved in March 2020 by KPG. A team formed by the book publisher concluded Sri’s work was “clear”.
KPG denied Sri’s statement and said on Nov. 4 that the team had found long quotes taken verbatim from Kuasa Ramalan in the first and second editions of the Madiun history book and the first edition of the Raden Rangga Prawiradirja biography.
On Feb. 7, 2020, KPG, Carey accompanied by his lawyers and representatives of UGM held a meeting, in which the latter said the two books were dummies, although there was no such statement on the cover.
KPG also asked UGM to coordinate with the Madiun regency administration to withdraw the books from circulation, which UGM followed.
“Meanwhile, regarding the ethical consequences related to the alleged plagiarism, we leave it to the UGM Faculty of Cultural Sciences Senate. But KPG and Peter [Carey] have never received further information about UGM’s policy on alleged violations of academic professional ethics,” the publisher said in a statement on Nov. 4.
The case went viral after Carey commented on culinary historian Fadly Rahman’s Facebook post.
Fadly caught an unidentified researcher in an international seminar copying his work. The post gained many responses, with some authors complaining about their bad experience, including Carey.
The Carey-UGM case is not the first time allegations of plagiarism have arisen in the Indonesian academic scene. In 2014, Economist Anggito Abimanyu resigned as a lecturer at UGM’s School of Economics and Business after being accused of plagiarism.
Anggito’s article, entitled “The Idea of Disaster Insurance”, published in Kompas newspaper on Feb.10, 2014, was similar to an article entitled “Initiating Disaster Insurance” written by Hotbonar Sinaga and Munawar Kasan, which was published in the same newspaper on July 21, 2006.
Anggito denied the allegation on the grounds of a failure to quote references.