iran’s edsa moments

tulad ni reynz over at barrio siete, i’m impressed and overwhelmed by the sight of tehran’s streets teeming with protesting citizens, in the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, and talaga naman, nakaka-wonder if this is iran’s EDSA moment, sabay merong touch of inggit, kasi, wow, we havent been able to raise such a crowd since edsa 1986 (i don’t know that edsa 2001, a poor sad crass imitation, drew as huge a sea of humanity).

but as the days go by, sa kakabasa at kakarinig ng tungkol sa sitwasyon sa iran, it’s looking more like a prospective tienanmen than an EDSA.   sana hindi.   but unlike EDSA, there is no split in the military, hardline authoritarianism rules, and soldiers seem prepared to shoot and kill if when ordered.   already there’s been some bloodshed but thank god not too much, not like tienanmen, not when the world is watching, thanks to the internet and tehran’s brave bloggers and tweeters.

for the latest news, i’ve been checking out huffington daily post where nico pitney is live-blogging the uprising.    ang daming nangyayari.   the street protests continue, the ayatollah will again address the nation on friday, and opposition leader mousavi threatens national strikes.

5:03 AM ET — Khamenei to deliver another address on Friday. That news comes via a very reliable Iranian on Twitter, who cites Iran’s state television. The same Twitter user also wrote earlier today about apparent plans for a broad strike being organized by reformists:

“Soon Mousavi will announce full national strikes, probably starting with Petrochemical – prepare for this… Expect food shortage – transport stoppage – money shortage in bank… Gov will respond with electric power cuts – prepare and have gas cylinders at home or gasoline for light/cooking… People of Iran – THIS IS THE DAWN – This is the new begining – have hope and prepare.”

biglang, uy, national strikes, just like cory’s civil disobedience campaign right after marcos was declared winner of the snap elections.   i wonder, will it get to that, or will the ayatollah blink and bend some to prevent the crisis from worsening.   whichever way it goes, nakaka-tense na nakaka-thrill, watching history in the making.   again, naunahan lang ako ni reynz.

… I cannot contain my apprehensive excitement, I have been glued to the monitor on my computer scanning every available news coming from Iran. Sometimes it makes me wonder if what’s going on in Iran is a prelude to what’s going to happen come 2010 Presidential Elections in the Philippines.

what’s going on in iran is certainly worth watching and learning from, so we know what our options are, not only in 2010, in case there’s also a failure of elections, but next month as well, in case gma  bestows a kiss on PALAKA and the lower house transforms into acon-ass.    maghanda tayo.   at humanda sila!

Comments

  1. merci beaucoup mademoiselle avec your Barrio Siete contribution! swak with current times and a reflection of what happened in our past. still glued very much with what is happening in Iran. so many lessons for us pinoys to be learned, the biggest of them all is that – legitimacy of the government does not emanates from “divine” insistence nang Ayatollah, rather, it’s from popular support. kudos to Cardinal Sin.

  2. my pleasure, reynz ;) and yes, i’m appreciating cardinal sin more. i used to say that he took too long deciding to support enrile and ramos because he was still in “critical collaboration” with the marcoses at the time of the defection. but when people started marching to edsa he could not but go with the people’s will.

  3. @orlando,

    agree.

    one big difference was the moral authority of the church or religion. whereas in the Philippines, the Cardinal supported the popular will, the Ayatollah in Iran ignored the people’s will.

    another thing of course was time – so am not sure if this is a big difference, but in the succeeding EDSA (and am not sure if this is counted) it’s mobile phones = text brigades, in Iran, it’s twitter and blogs.

    but there were a number of similarities too!

  4. hey orlando ;) noong edsa 86 hindi lang wala pang web, wala pa ring text messaging at digicams. and yet and yet. all we had was ONE radio station — the catholic radio veritas — that dared cover the enrile-ramos presscon, and kahit 24 hours lang itong nakapag-broadcast nationwide before it was attacked and rendered useless by ver’s forces, it was enough to embolden other radio stations to continue the coverage, and the rest is history. sa iran yata, hawak lahat ng radio and tv, and most of the nation is not wired, so i heard from cnn’s amanpour na the opposition’s call for nationwide strikes isn’t getting out to the rest of the nation…

  5. Watching Iran’s EDSA moments on CNN.

    Hindi ko lang mapigilang malungkot.

    People remember the bloodless revolution of Poland, Tianamen Square protests. They will remember how LEDA’s death will probably change the course of Iran’s clamor for a change.

    But very few mention our EDSA. Parang nalimutan na ng mundo na tayo ang nagpatunay na pwede ang “peaceful revolution”.

    Dahil? Sa bawat isang Marcos na paalisin, ay sandamakmak na kapwa buwaya ang naghihintay upang pumalit sa patatalsikin.

    Minsan nahihiya akong aminin sa aking sarili na sacrilegious isiping ang ating shining or defining moment sa mundo ang siya ring most embarassing moment nating Pinoy. Ilang EDSA pa ba bago tayo matutong kumilatis ng mga taong magsisilbi sa atin?

  6. naku, jun ;) feel ko ang lungkot na iyan. para bagang binalewala na ng mundo ang EDSA natin, gayong ito mismo ang nagpatunay, like you say, na puwede ang peaceful revolution, pwedeng hindi magpatayan tungo sa pagbabago.

    and you’re right, it’s a measure of the world’s low regard for us. oo, success yung four days in february, napatalsik natin si makoy at naiupo si cory, pero bumitaw agad tayo, nagtiwala tayong tuloytuloy na ang pagbabago, na siyempre hindi nangyari, salamat sa sandamakmak na marcos wanna-be’s na nagmyu-musical chairs sa palasyo hanggang ngayon. sa susunod talaga, dapat ay hindi agad bibitaw ang people power.

  7. jojie umali-riyadh

    The tragedy with EDSA I was that we have relegated the power of prayer as a spent miracle to be invoked only in times of crises. WE have forgotten the saying “Nasa Diyos ang Awa,nasa Tao ang gawa”. To me, in hindsight,The biggest blunder of the post EDSA I was erecting the image of the Virgin Mary statute to represent in an Age of Modern Era the turning point in our people’s revolution where it was self-evident that the Divine intervention was the only power that could have define our peaceful revolution. To me, that hypocritical symbolism of patronage homage to Mother Dear was our leaders’ respond to God’s call and dispensation of power to change our lives. Some one has termed it “karma” for Filipinos turning its head ohterwise. Our leaders were focus not in structural changes in our political,economic and scoial inequalities but in more mundane activities and religious inanities that do not punish the evildoers according to law and rewards the righteous and honest. Hence, we are back to square one. Enough of those religious motherhood statements. lets demand more civility above the norms of good behaviour, law-abiding and be an honest family member. After all, as Shakespear has said, “Man is the measure”.