The avalanche of online criticisms against Sin Chew Daily over habitual plagiarism in the last few days proves once again the critical dearth of ethics in Malaysian journalism.

I say ‘habitual’ because this was not the first time that Sin Chew has been caught with its pants down. Ask anyone who has worked for Sin Chew and cares about real journalistic standards, such as Ng Boon Hooi and Chang Teck Peng, and you’d be shocked to know copying articles from other Chinese media sources - be it in Taiwan, Hong Kong or mainland China - without crediting the authors has long been tolerated and even acquiesced with.

NONE But don’t ask someone like Bob Teoh, who is virtually ignorant of the Chinese media scene in Malaysia.

Thanks to the Internet, such practice hardly goes undetected nowadays. The rise in political awareness among Malaysian readers also means that many are increasingly accustomed to their role as proactive citizens, and begin to shoulder the responsibility of monitoring the mainstream media in a far more rigorous manner.

That is a good sign.

For instance, a few years ago, a reader revealed that a column by Tay Tian Yan, a Sin Chew deputy editor, was in fact a Chinese translation of a political joke in English that had been widely circulated and reposted just before the March 2008 general election, except for minor modifications.

NONE True to form, the arrogant Sin Chew dismissed it as irrelevant.

I am in fact not the person who found out about the latest plagiarism scandal. It was a reader who tipped me off and requested that I expose it. He later came back with more pieces of Sin Chew leading articles that had plagiarised from elsewhere, mostly the China Times , the United Daily News and the Economic Daily in Taiwan.

This reader, who asked to remain anonymous, is now the legendary David who defeated Goliath.

Following the explosive news, Loh Cheng Boon, a senior writer who had penned most of the editorials, resigned to take full responsibility. He has done so with dignity and hence deserves my unreserved respect.

However, what happened thereafter only serves to highlight the fact that Sin Chew ’s senior management have lost their ethics almost beyond redemption.

Diverting from the real issue

While issuing ostensibly an apology through its FB page, Sin Chew purposely leaked out Loh’s medical condition, i.e. depression, to a former employee, who duly posted the information online and appealed for understanding.

In doing this, Sin Chew was clearly - and cunningly - seeking to divert the real issue. Instead of owning up to the fiasco, its senior management was hoping to stop netizens from discussing the topic further, as anyone who did so would invariably be accused of “rubbing salt into Loh’s open wounds”.

Alas, Chinese Malaysians are no longer as gullible as they were a decade ago, when Sin Chew emerged as the ultimate beneficiary in the aftermath of the MCA’s takeover of Nanyang Press Holdings that sent the circulation of its arch-rival into a nosedive.

The ploy failed miserably and netizens persisted in questioning why the senior management allowed others who had committed the act of plagiarism to keep their jobs. As far as I could see, no-one, practically no-one, uttered a word of insult to Loh. On the contrary, they are outraged by Sin Chew’ s brazen resort to Loh’s illness in saving its own skin.

Hence, the crux of the matter remains consistently that Sin Chew ’s senior management not only has refused to publish in full what has happened - including its past habit of plagiarism - but has also attempted to pre-empt criticism by using Loh’s medical condition as its fig-leaf.

It is worth reminding here that confidentiality goes beyond undertaking not to divulge confidential information, for it includes also an utmost duty to ensure the information is kept securely. In the United Kingdom and the United States, a failure in observing the duty would entail serious legal consequences. Sin Chew ’s blatant disregard of the ethical principle is hence flabbergasting.

A crucial question to ask now is: who within Sin Chew ’s senior management has sanctioned the leak about Loh’s condition?

NONE The readers became more incensed when they realised the on-line apology was completely absent from the print version. To lance the boil, editor-in-chief Pooh Ah Lek wrote a piece entitled ‘Let him lead a quiet life’ two days later, in which he again asked for ‘sympathy’ .

But that’s a shameless and mendacious choice of title, for what follows is the most deceptive and tasteless piece of journalism Chinese Malaysians have ever read.

Pooh not only sought to blame Loh for all that had transpired, but failed to list out one by one the editorials at issue. He also made no attempt to explain why, despite repeated accusations by netizens in the past, the senior management continued to allow plagiarism to happen, not only in its editorials, but in other sections of the newspaper as well.

‘Who was behind the exposure?’

And Pooh has yet to shed light on who, really, was behind the exposure of Loh’s medical conditions. I cannot be accused of insulting Loh by raising this legitimate question, can I?

Before anyone rushes to come to Sin Chew ’s defence, do consider that this is arguably a Chinese newspaper with the largest circulation in South-East Asia. It boasts unashamedly of a readership of 1.4 million and claims itself to be “premised on integrity”.

In the wake of the plagiarism scandal and Sin Chew ’s unethical behavior, such flagrant flatulence no doubt defies parody.

Since the March 2008 political tsunami, Sin Chew ’s senior writers have been lamenting the lack of public integrity in Malaysian politics. It is indeed not too pleasant to know that they now find themselves in their own version of political scandals.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.