If we need more proof that professional stupidity is an occupational hazard of the office of a political spokesman, consider Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Anthony Golez’s defense of his provocative remarks about political immaturity. Asked whether he thought the debilitating street protests in Bangkok would happen in Manila too, he had said no, “because our people have reached a high degree of political maturity whereby our people respect due process and the rule of law.”
In other words, Thais, according to Golez, were politically immature. He did not say it outright; he did not need to. That’s basic logic, something a medical doctor of Golez’s quality and administrative ability would have easily followed. Indeed, you don’t need to be a doctor to know that if p implies q, then not p implies not q.
Thailand’s ambassador to the Philippines, Kulkumut Singhara Na Ayudhaya, drew the correct inference when he called a news conference to assail Golez’s comment, and Sen. Richard Gordon’s too, as unduly harsh and even unnecessarily interventionist.
But in response, Golez played dumb. “For the record, I did not say the Thais lack the political maturity,” he said Thursday. “I said in my interview that the Filipinos have reached a high level of political maturity.”
This defense is, at best, a half-truth.
ref: inquirer.net
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