Intellectual property is the bedrock of invention. Individuals are blessed with different talents through which they process their thoughts to contribute to development to society but there are some cunning characters who prey on other people’s intellect.
Those characters wait for others to think, invent and they pounce on those ideas or thoughts to portray them as though it is their own. This, it seems, is the character of Post Newspaper editor Fred M’membe. It’s actually a serious offense to steal another’s work without due credit. But M’membe finds nothing wrong. He alone deserves the honour and praise.
But this man is not ashamed to plagiarise, to publish another author’s arguments without due credit. Why? Because he wants to get the credit for something he has not done, for the work that is not his own.
In his recent editorial of May 6, 2013 on fuel subsidies, M’membe stole arguments of another author Adam Robert Green to advance his Patriotic Front propagandist voice on anything that President Michael Sata professes.
The University of North Carolina defines plagiarism as “the deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise.”
Surely, for a man who stands on a podium to accuse others of being thieves, this is not a standard he should set for himself and his once popular and respected newspaper – The Post – now turned into a government newsletter.
It is criminal to steal someone’s work and we wonder how many of such M’membe has stolen to portray as his own. It is also a serious wonder how M’membe has managed to point an accusing finger at others of corruption without removing the speck in his eye.
If you read the editorial in The Post and the article by Green in African Arguments published on April 15, 2013, you will note the similarities and in some cases word-for-word copy and paste style. This is certainly unacceptable!
Green makes a detailed and well researched argument about subsidies. To an extent, Green’s article is convincing but M’membe only picks thoughts that go as far as embarrassing even the author of the original argument.
Here is a link to The Post and African Arguments.
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