KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Literary aficionados have cried foul over the Education Ministry allegedly using a local author’s short stories in the Form Five public examination syllabus without obtaining his permission or paying him royalties.

Chua Kok Yee commented today on independent publisher Sharon Bakar’s Facebook post that the alleged theft involved three of his short stories — “Embracing Your Shadow”, “Thieving Daughter” and “Sambal without Anchovies” — from his short story collection “Without Anchovies” published in 2010 by Silverfish Books.

“THREE of my short stories are selected as required reading for SPM Literature in English.

“Unfortunately, the text books were printed, distributed and sold without royalty agreement and permission from silverfish books and me. My rights as the author of those stories are not acknowledged in the book as well’,” Sharon, who is also a creative writing teacher, quoted Chua as saying in her Facebook post yesterday.

Malay Mail Online understands that Chua, Silverfish Books and an agent from the Education Ministry met back in 2012 to discuss the possibility of Chua’s stories being used for the SPM English Literature syllabus.

Malay Mail Online also understands that Silverfish Books later submitted a letter to the government confirming that Chua was, in fact, the author of several stories but no discussion regarding royalties was ever made.

Chua told Malay Mail Online yesterday that he will be meeting with Education Ministry officials for further discussion, but declined to elaborate.

“The Ministry has contacted us and agreed to discuss this further,” Chua said.

The Education Ministry’s Contract and Copyright Unit head Jasmadi Jamaluddin said an investigation will be conducted on Chua’s complaint about not receiving royalties for his short stories that were used in full in the Form Five English Literature textbook.

“We took note of author Chua Kok Yee’s complaint and we are looking into the matter,” Jasmadi told Malay Mail Online.

Two other authors also claimed that the Education Ministry had taken their works without permission.

“Mine was for the lesser SPM English Literature paper, with fewer students opting to sit it,” Malaysian playwright and writer Kee Thuan Chye said in a comment on Sharon’s Facebook post.

The title of Kee’s poem that was allegedly taken without permission is unknown, with Kee declining comment when contacted by Malay Mail Online as he was out of town.

American writer Robert Raymer said on Facebook that the Education Ministry had used his short story “Neighbours” from his short story collection “Lovers and Strangers Revisited”, published by MPH Publishing in 2005, for the SPM English Literature syllabus from 2008 to 2015 without paying him royalties.

“In fact I found out I had been selected for the 6th cycle by chance when I was still living in Penang, after attending a talk in Kuching following a conference and someone I knew from MELTA (Malaysia English Language Teaching Association) from KL just happened to be there, equally surprised to see me, and informed me that ‘Neighbours’ was one of five short stories chosen,” Raymer, who lives in Sarawak, told Malay Mail Online via email.

He claimed that the Education Ministry has been using for years local authors’ works without permission or paying them royalties.

“But going to the police, etc etc seems silly, unless writers were purposely ripped off without the Education Ministry knowing this, but contacting the Education Ministry and rectifying this or highlighting that this had been going on for years is a worthy goal,” he said.

Local author Uthaya Sankar SB said on Facebook that such alleged theft has been happening with Malay-language literature too.

“I was unaware that this was also happening to our friends writing in English. I’d be more than happy to highlight this issue,” he commented on Sharon’s Facebook post.

Sharon stressed that writers must stand up and support each other in copyright and payment matters, saying on Facebook: “Because in the past the ministry have got away with this, it gets harder for subsequent authors to get fair treatment”.