Hypertext Revolution
by Alecks P. Pabico as featured in I Magazine

ONE IS a retired general while the other is a retired action film star. But there was a time, not so long ago in fact, when each was head of state of a Southeast Asian nation, and therein lies the beginning of their very similar sorry fates.

That mutual misfortune consists partly in being unceremoniously booted out of office on the strength of massive popular uprisings stemming from allegations of unabashed corruption and cronyism during their terms. But there’s another feature unique to the dramatic fall from power of both ex-Philippine President Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada and former Indonesian strongman Suharto’s -- which may become common to popular revolts in an increasingly digital age. Both unlamented leaders withered away in the face of a protest movement employing information and communication technologies (ICTs) as catalysts for social change.

In fact, Suharto may have lasted even longer than the three decades he was in power if only Indonesians had not started going online in the late 1990s; he was forced to step down finally in May 1998. Estrada, however, already had to contend with a Web-savvy segment of the Philippine population from his very first day in office, as well as a growing national habit called ‘texting.’ He managed to hang on to his seat in Malacañang for just over two-and-a-half years, or less than half his six-year mandate.

Much had already been said about how Indonesians resorted to the Web and online mailing lists like Apakabar for exposés and discussions on Suharto’s corrupt and repressive regime, instead of making do with the so-called information churned out by the government’s propaganda machineries, which included the traditional media. Armed with what they downloaded from the Web, hundreds of thousands of Indonesians poured into the streets to protest a bankrupt regime’s continued existence.

Three years later, modems also proved to be among the more potent weapons in the Filipinos’ arsenal against Estrada. These and cellphones became People Power 2’s equivalent of the rosaries and flowers of 1986, when the first postwar popular uprising in the Philippines sent dictator Ferdinand Marcos fleeing to exile in Hawaii.

Estrada did try to bully his critics, including the media, into silence. But his scandal-tainted, bumbling presidency had no choice but to endure the wrath -- and wit emanating out of some 200 Web sites and about a hundred email discussion groups that sprouted like kangkong during the rainy season, especially after ‘Juetenggate’ broke out last October. All engaged in anti-Erap rhetoric; all clamored for his resignation, impeachment and ouster.

Among the most prominent of these online endeavors was eLagda.com, which tried to solicit a million signatures in 21 days to pressure Estrada to step down. The arguably quixotic effort failed, amassing only 115,000 sign-ups. But out of it emerged 25,000 e-mandirigmas (cyberwarriors) across the globe, organized in an egroup that waged letter-writing campaigns to the senator-judges in the impeachment trial. The e-mandirigmas didn’t stop at email and fax, but also employed the short message service (SMS) via mobile phones. This of course is none other than text messaging, or simply, texting.

Before what is now also known as Edsa Dos, texting was regarded by many as a purveyor of tasteless jokes and nasty rumors. But ‘texters’ were able to redeem the reputation of their electronic gadget of choice after it was credited for the speed and ease with which anti-Erap protesters were mobilized at the Edsa Shrine just a few hours after the historic 11-10 vote in the Senate impeachment court.

It was already way past dinnertime on January 16 when 11 senator-judges prevented the introduction of further evidence of ill-gotten wealth against Estrada, but that didn’t stop angry Pinoys from heading toward the Shrine, some still in their bedclothes, many of them clutching cellphones. Estimates by cell phone service providers place the volume of text messages sent daily during the four-day revolt at 160 million -- triple its normal daily average.

YET EVEN before his assumption to the presidency, Estrada already was and to this day continues to be a pariah in cyberspace, without an online constituency. Then and until now, the man who once used a book of jokes starring himself as a campaign tool was an easy prey to parody and satire sites.

To be sure, the then President had his own official website. But he never really was a Third Wave adherent, in spite of erap.com, which, Pinoy Webhead Jim Ayson says, was more an excuse to present a polished and dignified online presence for the presidency. Ever the traditional small-town politico, Estrada was more comfortable in the Second Wave technology of television and radio. This led him to underestimate the Internet’s power of information-dissemination, thus allowing dissent and activism to thrive online (although at one point, Estrada seemed so irritated by the Erap jokes spreading through texting that he pestered telecommunications executives regarding the possible censure of text messages).

Little did Estrada realize that the seeds of digital democracy were already being sown by thousands of Filipinos non-techies and I.T. enthusiasts alike who may have been separated by time and space, but were nevertheless converging daily in the electronic plazas of the Net. And unfortunately for Estrada, these netizens were able to summon the often-described “morally ambivalent” technology into serving the ends of the social values of democracy, transparency and public accountability in governance.

Interestingly enough, Filipinos had not gone online because of the absence of the very freedoms the rights to free speech and free expression that have made their Southeast Asian neighbors turn to cyberspace for their deliverance. To Pinoys, it seems, the Internet, with its hypertext-based interactivity, serves only to further reinforce these rights. Online, the government has less power over the people and is less impervious to being flamed, criticized, satirized and parodied.

But as the anti-Erap campaign raged in cyberspace, further experiments in digital democracy gave new forms to free expression and free speech. Sites like Channel One TV and gin.ph, the Guerrilla Information Network, for instance, are now advocating open source journalism. Channel One TV has also offered online viewers the events leading to Erap’s downfall, unedited and unprocessed. Its originators believe it is now time for the power to analyze and interpret the news to shift from the media owners to the people themselves.

Central to the notion of open source journalism is this “disintermediation,” which regards the role of middlemen, or intermediaries, superfluous, and should result in what GIN calls “news devoid of the ‘spin’ of big business and government-owned media.” No longer is the news just the domain of journalists, ideologues and the wielders of political power. Anyone with a computer and a modem has access to information and is therefore able to contribute his or her own news accounts, opinion and analysis of the burning issues of the day that affect government and society.

Remarkably, with online discussion groups and mailing lists, the Internet has also begun to foster an open source political movement, which is making more visible what some I.T. scholars call society’s processes of collective cognition. As civil society organizations in the RIO (resign, impeach, oust) campaign can attest, email-based groups have become useful online mechanisms for them to think together compare ideas, raise questions, seek clarification, thresh out differences and share information on an issue of common interest. Like the ouster of an inept and crooked president, for example.

The beauty of email groups is that even overseas Filipino communities that were left out during Edsa 1 were able to participate in discussions, as well as in anti-Erap warm-bodied rallies organized here and abroad.

In this regard, the Internet has truly given new dimension to the mobilization and coalition work of civil society. Groups like the Kongreso ng Mamamayang Pilipino (KOMPIL II) and the Erap Resign Network, to name a few, made use of email 24 hours a day in alerting coalition partners about an ensuing activity, be it a coordinating council meeting or the Jericho march in front of the Senate building during the impeachment trial.

Email lists have also helped in accelerating and broadening the scope of regular activities, like getting consensus for a draft statement or manifesto being passed around given the constraints of time. KOMPIL’s information and education campaign on the impeachment trial, for instance, greatly benefited from the use of listservs as distribution channels for the legal primers and comparative summaries on the testimonies of witnesses prepared by its lawyers.

Indeed, while the immense public following generated by the Estrada impeachment trial amply demonstrated television’s preeminence as an important medium in the political process, the Internet’s role had not been any less. Not since Estrada’s proposals to give Marcos a hero’s burial and to have the Constitution amended had a substantial cross section of society been passionately engaged in any discussion of a raging issue online.
This rapid dissemination and debate of civic information, says technology commentator John Katz , is but a function of digital democracy, which gives the public the chance to be heard quickly and continuously.

NOW Malacañang has a new occupant, and Estrada is back at his Polk St., North Greenhills residence. From the looks of it, the ex-president is not about to roll over and play dead, but is still trying to write a better ending for himself. Unfortunately for him, Net activists have remained busy as well, unanimously believing that the real work has just begun (un-hip as that cliché may sound).

In the post-Erap period of renewal and reform, the prevailing mood in the I.T. community is one of mixed agitation, exuberance and optimism over its newfound strength. And with the national elections in May have also come the initial opportunities for the technology savvy to further exercise this power, particularly in transforming the electoral process into a more mature, democratic exercise.

Independent Webmasters have thus begun gearing themselves toward election-related content anchored primarily on very strong anti-trapo (traditional politician) sentiments forged during the anti-Erap campaign. More organized site owners like the Filipinos for Reform and Empowerment through Education, Entrepreneurship and Electronic Media (FREE3), publisher of gin.ph, have launched election portals. FREE3’s site is called ebantay.com, offering voter education so that people can make informed and right choices as well as an audit of candidates running for public office based on their educational background, political platform, track record as public servants, morality and trust factors. A post-election watchdog component, Bantay Pangako, will be monitoring the performance of winning candidates as against their campaign promises.

Another portal site, Halalan2001.com, a private sector initiative, promises to be a veritable database of election-related material, ranging from pertinent election laws, Commission on Elections (Comelec) rules and regulations, election calendar, registered political parties, public issues and election data, elective positions at stake, and candidates’ profiles.

Other online activists, meanwhile, are expending their energies on wide-ranging advocacies. Pinoy Web satirist Gerry Kaimo of pldt.com has secured the ekulong.com domain to highlight calls to bring the former president to justice. An online lobby has also been set in place seeking the creation of a special court to try Estrada. Many hope to protect and expand on the gains of People Power 2 through anti-corruption strategies like esumbong.com or by online muckraking in the manner of bulatlat.com. Some mailing lists are renaming themselves to reflect more appropriate calls like convict-erap and jail-erap.

In addition, proposals for providing an interface for all the available ICT applications are being explored, with FREE3 leading the way in setting up a Web-based National Text Brigade (NTB) for information and mobilization purposes. As a text-messaging clearinghouse, the NTB tries to minimize the circulation of irrelevant messages by allowing message verification before these are sent.

Yet for all their laudable intentions, most of these ICT efforts are still focused on the end applications rather than on the fundamental infrastructure of the Internet. The present set-up of the Internet, contends Steven Clift, editor of the Democracies Online newswire, treats democracy as a “burdensome add-on and side application.” Thus, the greater challenge to civic technologists worldwide is to make the Internet work naturally in the public interest.

The convergence of democracy and the Internet certainly requires a lot of things, foremost of which is addressing what Internet activists and civil society groups acknowledge as the most formidable task: how to bridge the “digital divide.” This is so wide a gap in which a mere one to two percent of 70 million Filipinos have access to online information while the great majority have the status of the so-called “digital homeless.” The country’s entire population, in fact, represents just about the same number of Americans who enjoy on-demand Internet connectivity.

To this, Al Alegre of the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) adds constituency building, or how to increase the social capital in online and offline communities that use technology to effect social change. Then there is content, given the different perspectives on “touchstone issues agrarian reform, peace, human rights, electoral reforms on which moral victories are translated.”

These challenges notwithstanding, the technology-enabled popular revolt that threw out a corrupt president has given Filipinos an all-important lesson in democracy: Technology may make some paths easier, but only because it is people-powered.