Lately we’ve had several whistleblowers risking their lives so that Filipinos may know the truth. Those who are outraged have upgraded their means of communication from texting to blogging; they’ve even come up with a backronym for it: Electronic Data Swarm Against Arroyo (EDSA).
But that addresses only the current political crisis, and not the greater illness plaguing the whole government. How do you moderate greed and corruption? Could it be through a specialized wiki-turned-watchdog like Wikileaks?
Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact. Our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by all types of people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.
I doubt the Philippine-based WikiPilipinas would be able to defend themselves against the powers that be if they ever start an initiative like this, so does anybody want to fill in the Philippine category in Wikileaks instead?