From a heart-rending natural disaster, we can say, a new social force has emerged.
When the extent of the flooding caused by the typhoon became better understood, the central government seemed incapacitated. No one knew what the administration was doing, how the relief operations were going, or where or how much help was needed. The surviving victims themselves were terrified; the rest of the public felt pain and sorrow.
But thankfully the people still had the Internet. An army of netizens mobilized itself immediately, and soon there appeared on the Internet a variety of Web sites devoted to gathering, sorting out, and disseminating information.
The technology used was of the sort that high-ranking government officials are completely unfamiliar with: A Morakot information center based on Twitter; a Google Map-based digitized map marking the affected areas and showing the extent of damages in each location; a Morakot relief and rescue site that used Plurk to match those who needed manpower and relief supplies with those who were capable of meeting these needs. The Association of Digital Culture, Taiwan, comprised of several prominent bloggers, was stationed in the disaster areas. This group, by making up for the missing links in our emergency management system, has shown what a force for good the Internet and netizens can be.
The difference between now and 10 years ago—when the devastating Sept. 21, 1999 earthquake struck Taiwan—is like night and day. When the Sept. 21 earthquake occurred, Google had only been in operation for a year. YouTube did not exist. There was no Facebook, Twitter, or Plurk. If photographers and cameramen could not reach certain regions, it was almost as if the world had forgotten about their existence. But today, it is possible to access the Internet almost everywhere, allowing members of the public, wherever they are, to send and receive information, to upload and download images, to indicate their whereabouts or locate others with the global positioning system. Everyone is a reporter now. thanks to micro-blogging and social networking sites, whenever an important event takes place, in an instant hundreds and thousands of netizens get to work.
During the Aug. 8 flood, an extremely wide area inhabited mostly by aborigines was stricken. There simply were not enough reporters to cover all the affected regions. To make matters worse, access to the disaster areas was often impossible, because many of the roads leading to those areas had been destroyed, or were blocked off by landslides. Thus whatever information professional reporters could gather contained enormous gaps. But what the traditional media could not do, the Internet could, as the victims themselves became reporters by providing images of and information on the stricken tribal areas.
A relief and rescue operation is like fighting a war, where battle plans are formulated on the basis of information. Accurate and timely information is the antidote to free-floating feelings of anxiety. In failing to provide the public with such information, the government can be said to have abandoned its battle positions.
No wonder some netizens sighed and said, “Thank God we live in the Web 2.0 era.” Those unable to return home could learn online if the flood waters in and around their homes had receded. They could get a better understanding of the situation using a digital map—in which an exclamation point signaled danger, and the Chinese character “hunger” indicated that relief supplies were lacking. They could hope that by the time they woke up the exclamation points and the hunger characters would be gone.
Of course, the Internet should not be viewed as an all-powerful tool. In the anonymous world of the Internet, it is easy for extreme points of view to be magnified and for false rumors to spread quickly. The Internet also provides a venue for the most foolish and idiotic among us to parade their stupidity.
But when a crisis brings out the innate compassion of netizens and their desire to help, then the Internet becomes a positive force that cannot be ignored, as long as the hearts of the Internet users are in the right place, and as long as professional guidance can direct the flow of information in the right direction. In a crisis, Twitter and Plurk become more than just devices that allow the people to say “good morning” to their friends and loved ones, or places where one can complain about the frustrations of everyday life.
With Typhoon Morakot, the Internet has become a place where specialists can use their knowledge to help with reconstruction. Truths about the disaster areas are made known on the Internet.
And now the Internet has also become a place that allows people to stand shoulder to shoulder with all forms of political power. In the aftermath of the typhoon, the public is no longer content to receive the traditional one-way explanations and defenses that governments typically provide. A lively debate is being conducted online now, for example, as to whether the mudslide that buried Xiaolin Village was the result of an earlier policy of diverting water from elsewhere. As the relief and rescue operations come to an end, “keeping a watch on the government, and holding it accountable” will be the watchword of netizens.
Nor will Internet users hesitate to sign off and take to the streets. Last year, for instance, the younger generation in South Korea, which was against the importing of American beef, circulated a petition online asking for the impeachment of President Lee Myung-bak. Within a week more than 1.3 million signatures had been gathered. Next hundreds of thousands took part in large-scale public protests, in what came to be known as the “mad cow shock.” A mirror indeed for President Ma to contemplate.
The leaders must understand that in this age of Twitter and Plurk, citizens require real-time dialogue with the government, and immediate responses to their demands. But the government, which has said it would like to “have a conversation with its citizens over a bonfire on the beaches of the Internet,” is still following the rhythm of life from the last century. It is still far, far way from meeting the expectations of its constituents in these micro-blogging times. (HZW)
(This editorial first appeared Aug. 25, 2009 in the “United Daily News”).
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