KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 — The Education Ministry has denied stealing short stories from three authors in the Form Five public examination syllabus without obtaining their permission.
Back in March, local author Chua Kok Yee had alleged that the ministry had, without his permission, used three of his short stories — Embracing Your Shadow, Thieving Daughter and Sambal without Anchovies — that were from his short story collection Without Anchovies published in 2010 by Silverfish Books.
Two other authors — Kee Thuan Chye and Robert Raymer also claimed then that the Education Ministry had taken their works without permission.
All three authors also claimed they did not receive royalty payments from the ministry.
“The author had given consent to the Education Ministry through an agent — Sakata Profound Technologies for the publishing of the book Without Anchovies by Chua Kok Yee,” the Education ministry said in a parliamentary reply yesterday to Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari.
The reply stated that Chua’s book was republished by the ministry as it was chosen as part of the Form 4 and 5 English SPM syllabus.
“The issue arose when the agent handling the matter did not take follow-up action to inform the writer,” the reply added.
The ministry said that the matter has since been resolved after a meeting with Chua.
The parliamentary reply also stated the issue of copyright did not arise in Raymer and Kee’s cases as their respective pieces — the short story Neighbours and the poem Figure Forgotten in Hours were not republished by the ministry.
The works of the two authors were used as part of an elective Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia subject Literature in English and therefore were not supplied by the ministry to students through the Skim Pinjaman Buku Teks scheme.
“For the students who took the elective subject Literature in English, they need to buy the books (themselves).
“Therefore there is no theft and copyright issue,” the reply said.
