Dear Editor,
I wish to make some observations on the current discussions in your letter columns on who is a good researcher and who is guilty of plagiarism. I do not know Mr. Vishnu Singh but I definitely know Messrs Irfaan Ali and Sasenarine Singh. They are both recognized as rising stars in the organization to which they both belong.
I do not wish to make accusations but will produce facts to substantiate why I think Mr Ali’s response to Vishnu Singh was inadequate and Mr Sasenarine Singh’s support for Mr. Ali was astonishing coming from an academic personality. The only conclusion I can arrive at here is that Sasenarine is seeking to come to the defence of a ‘comrade.’
I checked Vishnu Singh’s citation with the contents of Mr Ali’s part one. My question to Mr Ali is that since he is claiming that his research sources were different from those mentioned by Vishnu Singh, is it co-incidental that Vishnu Singh’s references and the contents of Mr Ali’s article are identical?
I wish to comment on some individual sources that Mr Ali claimed to have reviewed:
The Economic Journal: I am wondering what issue(s) of the Economic Journal the gentleman and his research assistant spent days and weeks consulting? I think part one of his article was very current in terms of the increase in prices, especially the price of rice. I have spent some time reviewing past issues of the Economic Journal, which I can access from my university, covering the publications between January 2007 and April 2008 and I have not seen a single article in relation to food prices and rice. Can Mr Ali tell the press what volume(s) and issue(s) of the Economic Journal he consulted?
The Economist and Financial Times: Mr Ali declared that he is a subscriber to monthly editions of the Economist and Financial Times. But is the Economist not published on a weekly basis and the FT a daily newspaper published in London and other major world cities?
Yours faithfully,
S. Williams
