Open Kyrgyzstan
By Martina Welke & Bolot Bazarbaev
Re-Vision Labs Fellows
Bolot Bazarbaev, a Humphrey Fellow at the University of Washington and an intern at Re-Vision Labs, has been captivating us for the past ten days with his knowledge and perspective as a revolution unfolded in his homeland of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Since traditional media was slow to react to the Kyrgyz crisis, Twitter was the first place Bolot went for news. He learned about events as they unfolded by following hash tags like #freekg, and handles like @kg_news, @Baisalov, @Otunbayeva. Even when the Internet was temporarily shut down within Kyrgyzstan, citizens could still access Twitter from their mobile phones and continued to share information. Websites like diesel.elcat.kg also played a crucial role in sharing information and helping to dispel false rumors.
The strategy leading up to the overthrow of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s administration was so well-coordinated, primarily via social media, that even when the leaders of the opposition movement were jailed, the movement continued successfully. As our colleague Brett Horvath astutely observed, “As soon as [Bakiyev] lost control of the information, he lost control.” (Last night Brett spoke on the subject at the TEDx Mission in San Francisco, which you can view here)
Now the Kyrgyz interim government has a unique opportunity to start with a “blank slate” unencumbered by previous bureaucratic systems. It could become the exemplar of open government: transparent and collaborative with high level civic engagement. Or it could be a cruel repeat of history, and fall back on the same systems that brought the demise of the previous administration, which came into being after a similar revolution only five years ago.
At a press conference in Bishkek on Thursday, Robert O. Blake, Jr., the Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs announced that the United States was committed to assisting in the development of open Kyrgyz governance:
The United States believes that the provisional government and the people of Kyrgyzstan have a unique and historic opportunity to create a democracy that could be a model for Central Asia and the wider region.
In all my meetings I emphasized the importance of the provisional government working transparently and in an inclusive manner with Kyrgyz civil society to ensure the provisional government has the benefit of the views and advice of the Kyrgyz people as Kyrgyzstan moves through this important transition. I look forward to meeting with members of Kyrgyz civil society later today.
At this crucial moment in history, the Kyrgyz Republic could leapfrog into a new kind of democracy by building itself around an open information platform, and help usher Central Asia- and the rest of the globe- into an era of open governance.
Before & After photo from Elena Skochilo.








