Kyrgyzstan Update -- "my guy didn't win"

Nathan at Registan notes that the widespread protests are having relatively little effect. He's pessimistic about their prospects:

To offer the pessimist’s view, Kyrgyzstan’s opposition is a group of elites who have fallen from the government’s favor who are trying to coordinate the actions of supporters of particular candidates. Maybe I’m reading the opposition entirely wrong, but the common thread appears to be anger. Ukrainian protesters were, to be sure, angry too. But there was an undercurrent of hope. Maybe it’s the lack of a unified political vision of hope and democracy to unite Kyrgyzstan’s disparate protesters, but for the time being, the bulk of the anger is in the form of “my guy didn’t win.”

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If Ukraine and Georgia showed the world how effective protest could be, Kyrgyzstan shows its limits. There has to be some unified vision, goal, or figure to weld discontent into an effective protest movement. Diffuse discontent won't get the job done.