By: 永久浪客/Forever Vagabond
It was reported in international news that US President Obama had cancelled a meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines after he called Mr Obama a “son of a whore”.
The move followed a warning from Duterte to the US president to not discuss about the subject of extrajudicial killings in his country when they were due to meet at the ASEAN summit in Laos.
Duterte was answering a reporter’s question about how he intended to explain the extrajudicial killings to Obama, before boarding a plane to Laos for the summit.
“You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte was quoted by AFP. “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me.”
In commenting about his cancellation of the meeting with Duterte, Mr Obama said, “Clearly he’s a colorful guy.”
“F*** you”, Singapore
The Philippine President is certainly a “colorful guy”.
In November last year while giving a speech, Duterte boasted about his exploit in burning a Singapore flag at a 1995 protest over the execution of a Filipina maid in Singapore.
He said, “I burned the flag of Singapore. I said: ‘F*** you … You are a garrison pretending to be a country.’”
Meanwhile, it was reported that PM Lee had met Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for the first time yesterday (6 Sep).
In a bilateral meeting of the two leaders ahead of the official opening of the ASEAN Summit, PM Lee further invited Duterte to visit Singapore, said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
“PM congratulated President Duterte on his election,” the statement added.
Clearly, unlike President Obama, PM Lee is magnanimous enough to continue his meeting with the “colorful” Duterte, despite his burning of the Singapore flag and using of the “F” word on us.
However, when it comes to online bloggers, Mr Lee is less magnanimous and would not hesitate to use legal means against them if he felt that he has been defamed.