Facebook, Twitter and the Internet
and the CPP, NPA and NDFP
April 10, 2011
■ Asiaweek interview with the NDFP webmaster, Oct. 1998
■ View the NDFP website first posted in 1996
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The NDFP first posted its website on Geocities in 1996 when the top speed of the internet modem was only 56 kbpps and the popular browser was Netscape Navigator. Microsoft introduced that year a lame version of its Internet Explorer. There were no Google, Youtube, Twitter and Facebbok then.
But the NDFP early on saw the need to have a website where its statements and news photos could be posted. It carried nedws on the CPP and NPA and other allied organizations.
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Indeed, the internet has served as an
effective means of communication and an outlet for dissent. The CPP and
the NDFP have long taken advantage of the internet since the late 1990s.
Revolutionary forces have employed internet tools such as Twitter,
Facebook, blog websites and others to undertake education, information
propagation, organizing and networking. Through the internet, the CPP and
the revolutionary and progressive organizations are able to reach out to
greater numbers of people than ever before. Everyday, the CPP and NDF
receive emails asking how to join the New People’s Army (NPA) and to
participate in or support the revolutionary cause. --- from a statement of the CPP
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Padilla (Chair, GPH negotiating panel) claimed that the youth’s
rising fascination with the Internet and its social networking sites has
cut into possible youth forays into Maoist doctrine. ---
from GMA news |
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The
Provocative Statements of Alexander Padilla In a recent interview, Atty.
Alexander (Alex) A. Padilla, Chairperson of the Negotiating Panel of the
Government of the Philippines (GPH formerly designated as GRP), made
several provocative statements that have no place in the ongoing peace
negotiations between the GPH and the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP).
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Facebook activism means fewer rebels - govt negotiator |
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Asiaweek, Oct. 2, 1998 issue on the political uses of the internet |
Revolutionary movement will remain youthful and vibrant
Alex Padilla, head of the Aquino government’s
peace panel, does not know what he’s talking about when he claimed that
the Filipino youth are pre-occupied with so-called “cyber-pursuits” and
are no longer interested in engaging in social activism, and that the
revolutionary movement will eventually die a natural death because it can
no longer attract young people to its ranks.
It makes us wonder why Padilla, as head of the
negotiating panel, dishes out such claptrap, which do not at all help push
forward peace negotiations. Worse, he is showing himself completely out of
touch with reality and out of sync with the Filipino youth. Indeed, he is
not yet too old, yet the ideas he is espousing are antiquated and reflect
the interests of the decrepit social and political system.
The Filipino people’s revolutionary movement
remains youthful and vibrant as ever. It continues to take root among the
students in colleges and universities, as well as among young workers and
peasants and persevere in fighting to put an end to the old oppressive and
exploitative system.
On a daily basis, young Filipinos, both from
the minority who are educated and the vast majority who are out of school,
are repulsed by the corruption, rottenness, fascist brutality and puppetry
of the ruling reactionary state. The current reactionary leadership which
defends the old semicolonial and semifeudal is seen as representative of
what is old and decrepit. Young Filipinos do not trust their future to the
class leadership of big landlords, big bourgeois compradors and big
beaurucrat capitalists.
As much as they are repulsed by the ruling
system, young Filipinos are drawn to the revolutionary cause which
represents a modern, forward-looking and progressive system. They are
militated by the cause of national liberation and social emancipation.
They study revolutionary ideas from a
multitude of sources including the internet, books, lectures and seminars,
educational discussions, statements and various other materials produced
by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the Kabataang Makabayan (KM or Patriotic
Youth) as well as other revolutionary, progressive and democratic
organizations.
Indeed, the internet has served as an
effective means of communication and an outlet for dissent. The CPP and
the NDFP have long taken advantage of the internet since the late 1990s.
Revolutionary forces have employed internet tools such as Twitter,
Facebook, blog websites and others to undertake education, information
propagation, organizing and networking. Through the internet, the CPP and
the revolutionary and progressive organizations are able to reach out to
greater numbers of people than ever before. Everyday, the CPP and NDF
receive emails asking how to join the New People’s Army (NPA) and to
participate in or support the revolutionary cause.
The CPP is a dynamic and vibrant organization
composed of both experienced cadres and youthful revolutionaries. It
benefits from the insights and energy of young adult recruits and the
guidance of its senior cadres. The vast majority of the CPP’s membership
are young activists who are daily recruited among the fighters of the NPA,
as well as from peasant organizations, workers’ unions, associations of
toiling people and student and youth organizations in the urban areas. The ruling semicolonial and semifeudal system is old and moribund. It is debilitated with incurable social diseases. In contrast, the CPP and the revolutionary cause are ever young and vibrant.
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"The National Democratic Front, the political arm of the banned Communist Party of the Philippines, has a website stored on the server of US-based Geocities and maintained from NDF offices in the Netherlands."
-- Asiaweek, October 2, 1998, pp. 47, 49
The NDFP website was first posted on Nov. 30, 1996
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Text of the Interview by the Technology Editor of Asiaweek with the Webmaster of the NDFP website in September 1998
JE: Historical Background of the NDF website. How was it started? When was the exact date it went online?
RKH: The website of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) was opened to the public on November 30, 1996, on the 133rd birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, founder of the Katipunan. Comrades involved in international work started the website.
Work on the website actually started a month earlier with the HTML pages uploaded to our Geocities host as they were completed.
Who are you trying to reach, in what part of the planet?
At that time we already took note of the growing number of internet users in the Philippines and observed too that there was a trend in the establishment of internet cafés where the public (mostly students and professionals) could go in and surf. Since the NDF would like its press statements and commentaries on current Philippine situation to be accessible to as many people in the country as possible, and since the intelligentsia (to which students and professionals belong) are making use of the internet for accessing various information, we thought that an NDFP website would also help achieve the purpose.
We also noted the growing number of internet users in other countries. Through the years the NDF has cultivated and maintained links with various progressive organizations in many countries and there have been exchanges of messages and documents of mutual interests related to some joint work or activities. The internet and the NDFP website allow such activities, especially the communication aspect, to be done more easily and more efficiently.
Did you find it an advantage that Internet costs are fairly low? How much roughly did you spend to put a page up on geocities?
The actual internet costs are indeed relatively low. As you have correctly noted from our URL, our website is hosted by the Geocities. We started by availing of the free hosting; however, when our total disk space requirement ballooned to more than the free 12 Mbytes we switched to the Geoplus hosting which costs $5 monthly.
The cost for the purchase and maintenance of necessary hardware like PCs, modems, scanners and internet subscription costs are contributed by supporters and allies of the NDFP in many countries. All work related to making the HTML pages are rendered freely by volunteers with technical background. The entire NDFP website staff is composed of activist volunteers.
What kind of response have you received, do you feel your message is coming across?
Our experience during the almost 2-year operation of the NDFP website validates our original observation. We have received notes from friends, allies and comrades from all over the world thanking us for making it very easy for them to read current press statements and commentaries of the NDFP on various issues. Website visitors also appreciate the fact that NDF documents are archived, posted and made available to researchers doing various, mostly political studies, on the Philippines. We have also noted that the Philippine and foreign media regularly check out our website for news; because of this, we email an advisory to media every time an update is made on the NDF website. (We will add your email address to our mailing list if you wish so you will receive the regular advisory).
Are you worried about censorship? Any examples of the site being blocked? Do you find ways around that? How?
Even before the advent of the internet technology, our comrades doing publicity work for the NDF have exhibited a high level of creativity in reaching out to as large a number of the Philippine and foreign audience as possible. In fact, in times of extreme difficulties our comrades are even more creative as attested to by their successful work during the long years of martial rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos from 1972 to 1986. We have talented members of the Liga ng Agham Para sa Bayan (LAB, or League of Science for the People), an allied organization of the NDFP composed of scientists and technologists, who can hack through attempts at censorship. That is why we are not worried about censorship at all.
Is the Internet a help in organizing? In communicating with other members around the world? Examples of how difficult it was before?
We have already explained how the internet has facilitated the exchange of messages and articles of mutual interests among comrades and friends and fraternal parties and how coordination of activities have been made a lot easier. Before the internet, there was the snail mail. Sending a message from one end of the Philippines (say Baguio City) to somebody in the south like Davao City takes several days by snail mail. With the internet it is just a few clicks away. However, it is important to observe all security measures to insure the integrity of the messages.
Is it an advantage to have the site based in a country where censorship laws in the Philippines don't apply?
Yes. In fact, no internet service provider in the Philippine will host the NDFP website because according to Philippine laws the NDFP is not a legal organization in the country. The only reason that the NDFP negotiating panel officers like Luis Jalandoni and Coni Ledesma were able to travel to the Philippines from April to August this year is because they are covered by the security provisions of an agreement forged during the on-going peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines and the NDFP.
By NDFP Website Staff
Roger K. Holmes NDFP Website Staff URL: http://www.geocities.com/~cpp-ndf or http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2078/index.html Email addresses: Telephones: 31-30-2310431 Fax: 31-30-2322989 Mailing address: Amsterdamsestraatweg 50, NL-3513 AG Utrecht, Netherlands
09/22/98 |
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Thios is the splashpage of the NDFP website in 2000, a good 4 years after the website was first posted on November 30, 1996.
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