The expert commission formed by the Teaching and Scientific Council of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences remained deaf to the remarks sent to them by the professors of Belgrade University through the Committee for Professional Ethics and blind to the obvious - that the doctorate of candidate Sinisa Mali is plagiarized. In a short, biased and imprecisely composed answer signed by three of the four members of the expert committee, which informally reached the public, it is stated that, when "weighing the number and importance of the virtues and flaws of the doctorate, the Committee firmly stands on the point of view that there are not enough reason to deprive the candidate of the acquired title of Doctor of Science".
The approach of the deadline for the statement of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences on the opinion of the expert committee (October 26, 2019) and the deadline for the statement of the Committee for Professional Ethics of the University of Belgrade (November 4, 2019) inevitably raises two important questions. Who will defend the honor and reputation of the University of Belgrade and who will bear the responsibility for the consequences of a possible wrong decision?
We see from the media that the price for defending the dignity of the profession is paid by colleagues who did not want to close their eyes to the obvious or to hide behind procedures and suitable "expert" opinions. MASA calls on the academic community to demonstrate in this case as well that it can shoulder the burden of making an honorable decision in solidarity. We appeal to the management and teachers of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences to be guided by the common need to collectively protect the honor and reputation of the University of Belgrade and to reject the decision of the expert committee accordingly. We believe that the blanket rejection of objections in order to wash away the dishonesty of the minister will not have consequences for the signatories of the expert commission's response or their universities, but will have long-term negative consequences precisely for the University of Belgrade.
The history of Sinisa Malo's doctorate is irresistibly reminiscent of the story of the emperor's new suit, no one wants to be the one to announce that the emperor is naked. We believe that colleagues from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences will reject the description of the emperor's suit given in the opinion of the expert committee and say what everyone has seen for a long time: this doctorate is PLAGIARISM.
