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| .my Malaysia |
Overview Malaysia comprises Peninsular Malaysia, and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the Federal Territory of Labuan. The country covers an area of about 330,000 square kilometres. Peninsular and East Malaysia are separated by about 450 kilometres of the South China Sea. The peninsula has its frontiers with Thailand in the north and the island state of Singapore in the south. The country attained political independence from the British in 1957. Its development policies have evolved during the past four decades, from the initial concentration on the agricultural sector to the current strategy of leap frogging into the digital era. The development of ICTs in Malaysia is often simply and erroneously equated by observers to the development of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). This is quite understandable as MSC was, and still is, seen by many as the baby of the government’s plans to digitalise the country. This error is also due in part to the launching of MSC in 1996 at about the same time that the government unveiled its plans to develop ICTs in Malaysia. However, a closer examination of Malaysia’s ICT agenda and strategies will reveal that the push towards the digitalisation of Malaysian society began at least as far back as 1991 -- 28 February 1991, to be exact. It was on this day that the Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, unveiled his Vision 2020 for Malaysia at the inaugural meeting of the Malaysian Business Council. It would be no exaggeration to say that for more than a decade -- and consuming virtually miles of newsreel and acres of newsprint -- on Mahathir’s "Vision" has firmly captured the imagination of the Malaysian media and public. And it is within the nine challenges set forth in the Vision that we can locate the initial motivations for digitalising Malaysia. One of the challenges is to establish "a scientific and progressive society . . . innovative and forward-looking" (Mahathir, 1991, pp. 2 - 4). It has been further argued in this regard that "The national IT agenda, aimed at transforming the nation into a knowledge-based society, [is] in line with Vision 2020" (Government of Malaysia, 2001, p. 367). Despite the Asian meltdown of the late 1990s, the development of ICTs in Malaysia -- at least the development of ICT strategies -- has continued at what appears to be a rapid pace due largely to the importance attached by the Mahathir administration to the successful digitalisation of the country. In
1994, the National IT Council (NITC) was established, chaired by Mahathir and
made up primarily of government ministers and a smattering of top company executives,
including the chairman of Shell Malaysia and the chief executive of Telekom Malaysia.
NITC "aims to enhance the development and utilization of ICT as a strategic
technology for national development . . . acts as a think-tank at the highest
level and advises the government on matters pertaining to the development of ICT
in Malaysia" (NITC, 2000, p. 1). Be that as it may, with NITA at the helm, legal articles have been continually prepared for the digitalisation process and MSC were developed. The past six years have seen much being said, planned and proposed in relation to ICTs. From the inane I Love IT song on Malaysian television a while back to NITA’s apparently more serious strategic task areas and the flagship applications of MSC, it is quite evident that ICTs are being taken very seriously by the powers that be. Statistics indicate that as of June 2002 there were 2.3 million Internet subscribers in the country, with the number of users being almost 7 million. In comparison, in 1997, just five years earlier, the figures were a mere 0.2 million and 0.6 million, respectively. Equally, the number of cellular phone subscribers has jumped almost four fold, from 2.4 million in 1997 to 8 million in June 2002 <http://www.cmc.gov.my/statisticframe.htm>. While the figures may seem impressive, there is a need to remind ourselves that similar official statistics indicate that the digital divide in Malaysia is still very real. For example, NITC figures for 2000 indicate that more than 70 percent of Internet subscribers are located in Kuala Lumpur and the states of Selangor, Penang and Johor, with the remaining ten states having less than 30 percent of total Internet subscribers (NITC, 2000). And it is also clear that. . . . . . the complete text of this chapter is available for purchase and immediate download as a PDF file, please click here for more information. |
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