Amir Santoso cleared of plagiarism allegation

JAKARTA (JP): Noted political observer Amir Santoso was cleared Wednesday of allegations that he plagiarized fellow observers' work in order to seek a professorship at University of Indonesia.

Rector M.K. Tadjudin led a closed-doors meeting with the university's senate of professors and later told reporters they could not find any proof to support the allegations.

"After reviewing his documents (that Amir submitted in order to earn the title of professor), we conclude that the accusations are untrue," Tadjudin said.

He said the documents, claimed to have contained portions of scientific theses written by fellow scholars, were actually a compilation of writings. Amir did not call it a scientific thesis, but a compilation of many theses he used in his lectures, Tadjudin said.

Amir, a staff lecturer at the university's School of Social and Political Sciences, had also clearly credited the portions he used in the documents, and did not call them his own as some have alleged, Tadjudin added.

The rector refused to speculate on who had spread the rumors about Amir, but said the university would release a statement to help restore Amir's reputation.

Amir, also director of the postgraduate program at Jayabaya University, was known several years ago as an astute political observer and prolific writer.

Earlier this year, he became a Golkar campaigner, the chairman of the political grouping's research and development department, and, eventually, won a seat in the People's Consultative Assembly.

He is the founder and director of the Center for Policy and Development Studies, a think-tank known for proximity to some people in the inner circle of the power elite. Part of the center's mission is to give influential inputs to the government.

It has been reported that some of the center's people, including executive director Fadli Zon, had split and established their own center.

Rumors had it that Amir plagiarized some 20 theses of the university's postgraduate students, including M. Syafi'i Anwar, now the deputy chief editor of Ummat magazine, and political observers including Mochtar Mas'oed from Gadjah Mada University.

Amir has been keeping a low profile over the allegation.

Tadjudin said Amir still had the chance to be promoted as professor because the university had not withdrawn his nomination from the Directorate General of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

"The University of Indonesia has never revoked his nomination. However, it would be up to minister of education and culture to agree to confer the title, not us," Tadjudin said. (09)