Rejects attempts to disqualify Matías due to his political aspirations
Santo Domingo.- Commentator Humberto Salazar defended this Wednesday the right of businessman and communicator Santiago Matías (Alofoke) to present his ideas and political aspirations in a university setting, considering that academia should be an open space for debate, questioning, and diversity of thought.
During his participation in the program “A New Morning”, Salazar referred to the controversy generated around the cancellation of an invitation to Matías from UNICARIBE and maintained that the university setting was precisely one of the appropriate places to listen to and question his proposals.
“The university is the space to discuss ideas, and you do not have to be a university graduate to go there and present them,” he stated.
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Salazar considered that the university acted correctly by extending the invitation and asserted that, according to the documentation in his possession, there was an official call for Matías to participate. “The university did well to invite him. The space, the stage was ideal to question him,” he stated.
Likewise, he rejected attempts to disqualify Matías due to his political aspirations or his career path outside of traditional spaces.
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“Santiago Matías has every right to run as a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic and he cannot be disparaged,” expressed Salazar, who added that it is up to the citizens to decide through their vote who should govern.
The analyst also maintained that Alofoke has become a relevant figure within the Dominican social and communicational reality, particularly due to the impact achieved in the digital age.
In his view, any university can leverage Matías’s experience to learn how he went from his origins in a working-class neighborhood of Santo Domingo to becoming a figure of national reach with the capacity to even drive a political project. “His experience, his ‘expertise’, is valuable for people to hear,” he pointed out.
Salazar insisted that universities must foster the exchange of positions, even when there are questions regarding the invited person. He specified that this same scenario allows students, professors, and authorities to formulate questions about their proposals, background, and public behavior.
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He also linked the emergence of figures like Matías in politics with the disenchantment of a part of the population with traditional leaders, pointing out that fundamental problems related to education, health, employment, citizen security, and transportation persist.
“I defend the right of Santiago Matías, Alofoke, first, to present a political plan…. I believe he had every right to go there, sit down, and express himself,” he indicated.
Finally, Salazar reiterated that he rejects any attempt by an academic institution to limit a person’s expression due to their ideas, background, or aspirations.
