Julian Assange and his Wikileaks have been in the news for some time now. Aside from the fact na ako’y utang-uta na sa mga report tungkol sa kanya, wala akong ibang masabi kungdi ano naman ang paki ko. I’ve got nothing to do with whatever he’s leaking. Some say he’s doing the world a favor because he’s exposing tortures, human rights violations and other atrocities committed by governments, mostly by the US. Ok, fine. On that part, I’d give Wikileaks some credit. Pero di ba sa hundreds of thousands na documents na ni-leak nya, a good part of that are private, supposedly highly classified communication between individuals?
Which makes me think… Are we really that hungry for gossip that we no longer discern what’s harmless versus what’s sensitive and can bring a country down? Where’s our decency not to dip our fingers on things that we don’t even have the full picture of? Are we really voyeurs to feel orgasmic in being peeping toms to other people’s business? Big Brother is fun coz it’s just a television show. But Wikileaks is entirely something more serious.
Simple lang naman yan eh. Imagine yourself writing an email to your best friend. You were talking about your neighbor, your officemate, your boss and even your husband/wife. Rumatsada ka ng husto, you were all candid and honest in everything you said dahil ang alam mo, ang kaibigan mo lang ang babasa. And he will understand whatever you were saying. Tapos biglang ipa-publish ng kung sinong herodes sa internet yong mail mo. Wouldn’t you feel pissed?
Granted these are communications between government officials but still, it doesn’t give anyone the right to poke and peek on whatever they are talking about. I still believe in the meaning of words like ‘confidential’, ‘secret’ and ‘highly classified’. I still respect them no matter what. If we don’t , then we’re basically violating the right to private communication between individuals – government official or not.
Makaharap ko lang itong si Assange, gusto ko talaga syang tanungin kung anong pumasok sa kukote nya at ginawa nya ito. So what if somebody gave him unlimited access to volumes of classified documents. Why did he decide to go online? For fame? Maybe. Look at how popular he is now. Fortune? Maybe. Moneyed supporters are pouring in cash despite Mastercard, PayPal and other online payment services dissociating themselves from the site. For humanity’s sake? Maybe. But really, what good does it do to the human race?
Aside from the fact that this event has triggered alarms among governments, reminding them that their classified data is no longer invincibly protected by whatever is securing it, what else did Wikileak do? Did it actually start something to stop Climate Change? Will it ever stop world hunger? Will it even make Haiti find its long-lost way to recovery? Will it end the power struggle in Cote D’ Ivoire? Will it end the financial crisis in Europe? Will it stop tension in the Korean peninsula?
Don’t think so. With these revelations, what Wikileaks successfully did is simply permeate the diplomatic stratosphere with pungent and acrid air. With that, animosity, subdued as it maybe, will understandably be harbored by some. Bukod pa doon yong katotohanang nilalagay nya sa alanganin ang mga military operations sa iba’t-ibang hot spots. Kayanin sana ng kunsensya nya when time comes that innocent lives are lost due to ambush or botched operations because of what Wikileaks leaked.
In the end, sino ba ang nakikinabang sa Wikileaks? Sa akin walang iba kungdi media. The voracious appetite of sensational journalists who found a convenient, highly explosive gold mine in Wikileaks. That’s why they are supporting Julian and his ‘cause’, whatever that is. They have to protect him from being reached and wrangled by the tentacles of an already pissed US government who were, in one of the rarest moments, caught off-guard by the audacity of these leaks. And these sure made them look like sitting ducks. What’s infuriating them more is the fact that they can’t silence Wikileaks because they’ve got no law to back them up. They must feel frustrated right now for not seeing something like this coming!
That’s why whether the sexual harassment case in Sweden is true or not, I think it’s just a ploy to get Assange behind bars. Kahit saan. Basta nakakulong sya. Coz letting him out in the open means firing more leaks out into the net. And to lock him up is the only thing that can stop him. At least for a while. And honestly, I think it’s just a critical step on someone’s effort to get his claws on Julian. If he gets extradited, then it will be the real start of his nightmares. Siguro naman him being a smart man, alam na nyang mangyayari ang ganito. Long before he started uploading the first leak into his site, he already knows things can get ugly. And that he will be going up against some Goliaths that certainly cannot be toppled by some pitiful slingshot.
I salute him for having the courage, if that’s what he wanted to call it. Nobody has ever stirred the tranquil pond of American politics as bad as he did. And in the process causing ripples on other political ponds all throughout the world. Ngayon alam na natin kung sino ang magse-shake hands on cam, ear to ear ang mga ngiti, pero sa kabila noon ay nagmumura at halos pigain ang kamay ng ka-hand shake sa inis.
But after all is said and done, let’s take a step back and look at the whole issue on a wider perspective. Bakit ba my leak? Saan ito nanggaling?. Come on, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that when there’s a leak, there’s a source. And this is what the US government should be working on, if they haven’t yet. They’ve got to find out who has duped and betrayed them on such a massive, devastating scale. Who is behind the boyish, unassuming face of Assange. Who is the real culprit behind Wikileaks. Now that, my friends, is gonna be the really juicy part!
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