A note on modern piracy in Malaysia.

Pringle, Robert

What follows is not about hijacked supertankers, but rather about a book, my book. Rajahs and Rebels: The Ibans of Sarawak under Brooke Rule, was originally published in 1970 by Macmillan (UK), with an identical US edition by Cornell University Press.

When I revisited Sarawak in 2007 after an absence of almost forty years, I found that there was a lot of interest in a new edition, not withstanding that copies of the original were still widely available on the Internet. It seemed like a good idea, especially if I could add a new introduction, mainly about how I might write some things slightly differently if I were doing the book today.

To my surprise and pleasure, the University of Malaysia (Sarawak) agreed to publish the new edition. The editing was a great deal of work, undertaken mainly by my wife, Barbara Pringle, and her collaborator at UNIMAS, Resni Mona. The new text was based on a scan of the first edition and it was full of typos, especially in the copious footnotes which were in very small type, too small for the scanner to reproduce consistently. That said, Barbara and Resni labored away and a handsome new edition appeared in 2010.

But well before that, a friend told me that a new edition of my book was already on sale in the Kuching airport, and at other airport bookstores in Malaysia operated by MPH books. It was labeled as published by Synergy Media, a division of S.A. Majeed and Co, as part of something called the "Malaysian Heritage Series." Smelling something fishy, my friend sent me a copy. It was quite a handsome paperback, with a cover photo not found anywhere in the original. Otherwise, and typos aside, it seemed identical to the original, except for an odd note after the publishing data: "The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work." Below that, and clearly referring to the current publisher, was the standard "all rights reserved" notice.

I was alarmed, to put it mildly. I certainly had not asserted any such right, if only because no one had ever told me that such a book was being published. There was nothing otherwise wrong with being associated with the Malyasian Heritage Series. It included a number of well-known classics probably old enough to be in the public domain. Mine was not. This was piracy, pure and simple.

Friends in the publishing business with experience in the region told me not to get excited; it was nothing uncommon; I could almost hear them laughing. I finally located someone associated with S.A. Majeed who explained to me that they had really tried to get my permission. He enclosed a copy of an envelope addressed to Cornell University Press with a "Return to Sender" stamp on it. In reply I pointed out that this was hardly a sufficient effort. An internet search would have found me. Even if I had died, someone would still hold the copyright.

What really worried me was the possibility that the new, legitimate publisher, the University of Malaysia (Sarawak), would refuse to go through with their edition with a new forward, on the sound assumption that the pirate edition might have met whatever demand existed. Someone gave me the name of a Malaysian lawyer specializing in copyright infringement, and I sought his advice. It soon became apparent that even if the book sold like Gone with the Wind, his fees would soak up more than any remuneration Majeed might make.

Someone else suggested going online with a well-known, slightly dissident Malaysian web site. I followed this advice and told the whole story there. This attempt at humiliation worked up to a point. I received an almost tearful communication from my contact at S.A. Majeed, about how fearful they were for their corporate reputation. He said they were withdrawing all books sent to their affiliate bookstores. But a month or two later my daughter, who was visiting Malaysia, said the book was still on sale in all the airports.

OK, what next? I am a former US diplomat. I know from past experience that the US Government is concerned, as a matter of policy, about intellectual property rights. So I wrote to the US Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur to see if he could help. To my surprise I got a letter in return saying the Embassy had sent a "Cease and Desist" request to the Malaysian government. I recognized that as something serious. Within a week or so another tear-drenched letter arrived from my contact at Majeed. For the second time he pledged to withdraw all copies of the book from their stores. This time Majeed would pulp them. He invited me to come out and witness them being pulped. He did not offer to pay my airfare from the US to Malaysia.

Well, I thought, you win. In a way, it was a reassuring defeat. I knew something about the history of piracy in Malaysia. Its role in state foundation, in places like Malacca and Srvijaya, came to mind. I myself had written on the subject of Iban "pirates" in the early days of Brooke rule. No historian can but be gratified when traditions survive. It was even more gratifying, however, when the University of Malaysia (Sarawak) went ahead with its new edition, this time rigorously proofread, with fine new cover illustrations. Moreover, it has been selling well, with all royalty proceeds going to the Tun Jugah Foundation.