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about Asia Buzz
Asia Buzz: Revolution
How text messaging toppled Joseph Estrada
By ERIC ELLIS
January 23, 2001
Web posted at 2:00 p.m. Hong Kong time, 11:00 a.m. EDT
How did you spend your weekend? I spent mine glued to CNN and the BBC watching Filipinos have an even more fabulous weekend in Manila.
It was fascinating to watch Son of EDSA unfold. I say Son -- perhaps Daughter is more appropriate -- of EDSA because it wasn't nearly as dramatic as the fall of Marcos in 1986. (I still have one of Ferdy's campaign posters, purloined from a Manila store awning with the help of a soldier who five minutes earlier had poked a rifle under my nose.)
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At no point did Gloria Arroyo's revolution ever look like degenerating into violence, and maybe Filipinos have technology to thank for that. This wasn't so much People Power but Technology Power: the Text Messaging Revolution. Filipinos are great gossips -- aren't we all? -- and extremely expressive. Text messaging with its emoticons, icons and instantaneous delivery is perfect for the charismatic people of "The 'Pines."
Saturday's inauguration -- the interesting one in Manila, not the boring one in Washington, DC -- was perhaps the first where the newly sworn-in President was sometimes interrupted by the chirruping of SMS [short message service]. Where the Bush clan was all solemnity and pomp, the Arroyos were exuberance personified. I wouldn't be surprised if Gloria had a messager in her handbag SMS-ing her Cabinet to tell them they've got the job -- with a little smiley face emoticon no doubt.
Text messages are the mopeds and motor scooters of the Information Age for poorer countries like the Philippines. We all want and need mobility and instant communication. But because of bad government and poor economic management, we often can't afford either. Wealthy Hong Kong and Singapore have extensive mobile phone and car penetration. Vietnam and the Philippines have text messaging -- and mopeds. But the mobility and communication is no less potent, as Erap, as Estrada is known, would now ruefully acknowledge.
A pretty good argument could be made that it wasn't just some petty venal corruption that toppled Estrada. He might've been stunned by just how quickly Filipinos gathered to shout, or text, him down after he looked like he'd won a reprieve in office when 11 loyal senators vetoed the unsealing of incriminating bank documents last Tuesday. They soon knew what was in the accounts anyway, reading details on their message alerts.
Minutes later, thousands of grump Pinoys began to gather at the EDSA memorial to protest that their democratic rights weren't being exercised. Text messages were frantically exchanged by the anti-Estrada camp, advising meeting points and schedules. Such was the demand that one company even bought mobile cell transmitters to critical sites along EDSA.
But officials of PLDT, the country's main telecoms carrier, weren't surprised. The volume of SMS jumped from 30 million messages a day over Christmas (remember this is a deeply Catholic nation) to record levels as the impeachment trial collapsed: about 70 million a day this past week.
Which raises an interesting point of discussion: In this wired age, who's a corrupt politician's best ally? The head of the armed forces? Or the telecommunications czar? As the mob descends demanding your head, which call is the best one to make first?
In the charged atmosphere of last week's revolution -- where numbers were crucial -- Estrada could arguably have nipped the protests in the bud by closing down communications while mobilizing forces elsewhere. It might have bought him valuable time. He might even still be in office. Or out buying a messager.
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