Citizen journalists

The first revolution of the 21st century is now underway in Iran.

Man’s oldest channel for communications — the streets — remains the arena for political confrontation in Iran’s cities. There the forces of reform confront the increasingly violent shock troops of the clerical oligarchy, the Basiji paramilitary units. Scores, perhaps hundreds, have been shot or beaten to death over the weekend. Homes have been invaded and university campuses attacked by thugs of the regime.

The ruling clerical oligarchy has drawn the line. Authorities in Tehran have banned the foreign media, disrupted internet sites, cut phone services and imposed strict censorship to prevent the rest of the world from viewing the unfolding confrontation.

But that is like trying to stop the flow of a stream with bare hands — no matter how calloused those hands might be.

The reformist forces are fighting back censorship quite effectively. It helps that Iran has one of the highest internet penetration rates in that part of the world. It also helps that two-thirds of the Iranian population are under the age of 33.

In order to prevent being traced, demonstrators take out their SIM cards from their phones and then use the gadget to record the historic events. The recorded video is then loaded onto the internet. There is also extensive reporting of events using other media such as Twitter.

Reformist leader Moussavi has taken cognizance of the importance of new information technologies to the cause of reform. He has called on protestors to continue recording their activities and broadcasting them to the world.

On the other end, sympathizers from every corner of the world have offered free software and websites for the Iranian people to use. They have hosted proxy net addresses to conceal the identities of activists and helped broadcast pictures and news from Iran in defiance of the crackdown.

 We are witnessing here the most breathtaking role played to date by citizen journalists. Every protestor on the street, armed with a cheap mobile phone, instantly becomes a broadcaster. Every personal computer becomes a news network with global reach. Short of closing down the country’s phone system and blinding all internet connections, there is no way the dictatorship can keep the world from looking in and seeing what is happening in Iran’s streets.

All these work because, on the other end of the line, are global citizens. These are people everywhere — not just Iranian expatriates — who support the cause, assist in broadcasting the messages coming out from a repressed people and marching in their own streets to help build international pressure on the tyrants trying to keep a people under their thumbs.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, threw his support behind Ahmadinejad and basically called for the protests to be suppressed. He has put himself in the line of fire. Over the weekend, the confrontation in the streets ceased to be merely over the matter of who really won the elections. For the first time, demonstrators were calling for an end to the rule of the mullahs.

That marks an important threshold. From objecting to the outcome of elections likely rigged to favor the conservatives, demonstrators are now calling for the dismantling of the Islamist regime itself. The confrontation can only become uglier, or more dramatic, from here on.

Mir Hossein Moussavi, for his part, has announced his readiness for martyrdom. That too is an important threshold. The crowds in the streets have ceased to be his followers; he has chosen to follow his people. He has become their instrument, the icon that clarifies, the symbol that condenses the sentiments of the new Iran.

The end of the theocracy in Iran seems to be at hand. It is a political order unable to keep its people away from the global mainstream and unable as well to keep the rest of the world from peering into the true sentiments of the Iranian people.

We do not yet know what the next dramatic turn will be. But we are sure this regime is fraying on every end: it can no longer govern an angry people, the youth have dissociated decisively from the social order they insist on imposing, the professionals and intellectuals are in the streets.

Citizen journalists will only intensify their efforts to build a new consensus — both within Iranian society and among lovers of freedom everywhere else. Global citizens, for their part, will help catalyze a new consensus on where Iran ought to be.

No longer can a tyrant like Ahmadinejad or a medieval figure like Ayatollah Khamenei face the world and pretend to be leaders of a nation. The world knows and they know the world knows.

Exactly a week before the June 12 elections in Iran, I chanced upon a conversation in Dubai. A man came up to me and asked for a light. While we both smoked outside a restaurant, we tried to converse despite the language barrier. We shared the bond of a persecuted habit anyway.

He turned out to be an Iranian tourist accompanied, as I would find out later, by his family. He had a good opinion of Filipinos and I told him I had the privilege of recently visiting Iran. I asked about the elections coming up in country.

On that question, he became animated and dropped all inhibitions. Through a combination of broken English, some Farsi and a lot of sign language, he basically made it clear his people would kick out the Ahmadinejad regime.

On my last puff, I said that if they do that I will try to be of some support to them in any way I could. I write this piece to keep that promise. It is also my duty as a global citizen to do so.