Plagiarism>> ELECTION • Tajikistan
Why will I vote for Emomali Rahmon? That’s the question a member of Tajik president’s campaign staff attempted to answer in a recent newspaper article. But in presenting his case, it appears the writer borrowed words from other well-known political figures in the region.
Ilhomjon Hamidov, who wrote the article in AsiaPlus on October 19, is now under fire for allegedly plagiarising passages from campaign speeches of Ukrainian and Russian presidents, among others. In his article in Russian, Hamidov wrote: “The extremely complicated realities demand a sensible and effective reaction from the top levels of government and call for coordinated actions aimed at heading off crisis situations.” Eagle-eyed readers noticed similarities to Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych’s party document during the 2009 polls.
Web-sleuthing uncovered a trend. Screenshots comparing Hamidov’s texts to other passages soon made their way to social-media sites. Some highlighted a phrase that bears an uncanny resemblance to wordings used by Russian President Vladimir Putin while addressing the ruling United Russia party conference earlier this month.
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