Failure of logic

I just love the way Donna Woodward squirms around in defense of her own failure of logic in her letter Invalid generalization of Oct. 25, 1999. She kept repeating a point about my "failure of logic" without any substantial argument to base her conviction on, perhaps in the belief that the more and the louder she insists on something the more the likelihood that people will accept it as truth. It reminds me of Bill Clinton, who insisted that he had never had a sexual relationship with "that woman" without wanting to dwell further on the issue because he knew the minute he did he was doomed.

She said that I made an illogical deduction when I said that she implicitly stated that Indonesian people were emotional and less than logical. This was what she said: "For persons in a democracy to disagree is neither surprising nor alarming. But the failure of logic in public debate is disturbing..." I might have been wrong in translating "public debate" as a general debate involving Indonesian people regarding the current issues as opposed to a debate in public, if that's the case I am more than willing to admit my mistake and apologize to have inferred that she had generalized that Indonesian people were illogical debaters.

However, she still failed to substantiate her original assessment of my "illogical" standing in my rebuttal. Her Clintonian statement, "I don't debate with Ms. Ratnaningsih because some of her arguments are illogically put forth", could make one smile and say, "something fishy in here, what is it she's trying to hide if she is so logical?". I can show her illogical standing easily without beating around the bush as I have shown in my rebuttal. This might be repetitive, but is an important lesson for Woodward on how to argue persuasively. Check this one out taken from her article: "While declining to control his military subordinate properly, Habibie nevertheless has not resorted to misuse of his position as commander in chief to retain office." I have shown how pointless this assertion was. To attribute this as Habibie's democratic virtue is an example of failed logic because she didn't take into account the glaring fact that Soeharto didn't resort to the same violent measure either even when he had all the power and excuses to do so.

"Failure of logic" can easily be caused by one's own erroneous measuring device. In Woodward's case, her error stems from her own failure of logic in the standards of measurement setting with which she measures what constitutes a failure of logic. I am not responsible for her distortedly set measuring device. She is. A degree in philosophy and a profession as an attorney do not necessarily make one hold valid arguments when one hasn't done one's homework before presenting one's case.

Anything further to this letter will be a time wasting tit-for-tat public discussion which I am not predisposed to do, so I wish to end this polemic here.

RAHAYU RATNANINGSIH

Jakarta

Note: With this letter we close the debate on the subject

-- Editor