And I swear...

‘I swear that this writing is wholly mine and you should neither question nor attempt to check whether this entry is authentically written by me.’

Imagine if you encounter an article exclaimed as such, would you just blindly accept the statement and choose not to verify whether the article is actually written by the ‘writer’ or it is actually plagiarised? Oxford University in 2006 reported that plagiarism is the rampant unethical conduct committed by most students. Students who are caught plagiarising always bail themselves out by throwing reasons such as they do not have time to actually sit and write the article or that they don’t know that plagiarising is wrong; lame excuses. On the first premise, everyone is given 24 hours a day and as far as I concerned a lot of people get to do a lot of things within that period; secondly, are they living in the Ice Age? People, the last time I checked the INTERNET did store news quoting authorities that criminalises plagiarism. In short, no excuse could absolve these culprits from their wrong.

Oh by the way, I don’t easily buy it when writers cry and swear that their articles or their works are authentically written by them, not until I have verified the claim and there is a score of evidence to corroborate the claim. Too bad folks, I don’t believe your sworn statement merely by observing your lips.

Notwithstanding that, it seems that a new trend has emerged in Malaysia that could be perceived as an easy way out to exonerate oneself from the wrong allegedly committed. Yup, it seems to suggest that to find out the truth we just need the accused person to swear, denying his or her attachment to the wrong alleged and lo and behold, the accused person’s name is clear. Further action is no longer needed to verify whether the sworn statement is really warranted or not. Further investigation? It’s an ancient history now. I’m not a religious person but sadly nowadays even religion cannot skip from being manipulated by certain quarters of people for their own benefit. I’m not in a position to judge any sworn statement uttered by anybody but I certainly against the idea that once swearing, the person swearing is deemed to have been telling the truth; it’s a blind faith my dear and I don’t favour blind faith. Truth is never baseless; it is always supported by concrete evidence. Swearing does not suggest that concrete evidence present. Swearing is not the requisite for concrete evidence to present but instead the present of concrete evidence is the requisite to the truth.