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Malaysia's 'e-democracy' will have to
wait
By Eric Loo
KUALA LUMPUR
- Activists, journalists and opposition groups expected
rising Internet access in Malaysia over the past decade
to create more room and hunger for political debate, but
the promise they saw in "e-democracy" remains
unfulfilled today, analysts say.
More than a
decade after Malaysia launched its first licensed
Internet service provider in 1990, what was assumed to
be the Internet's inherent power to enhance the
democratic process in a country where dissent is frowned
upon remains a theoretical one.
In reality, the
average Malaysian's priorities in life and the
government's agenda are still being defined by tangible
economic imperatives rather than abstract civic
discourse on the Internet, communication experts and
independent journalists say.
"In a society where
the citizenry is not interested in making themselves
heard, when newspapers, radio and television are owned
and operated by a member of the governing coalition, and
when important public issues are never, as a rule,
articulated in public, the coming of the Internet cannot
lead to freer and more open critical discussion of
public issues," said MGG Pillai, civic advocate,
journalist and list owner of Sang Kancil at
malaysia.net.
"All it [Internet] provides is a
forum for the disenchanted, the NGOs, the political
parties and, after the Anwar Ibrahim affair [in 1998],
the reformasi groups to air their views," he
added.
Pillai was referring to opposition groups
that sprouted after the arrest of former deputy premier
Anwar by the government of Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad, as well as attempts to use the Internet as an
alternative means of information beyond mainstream media
that follow the government line. "They could not [have a
forum] before the Internet, because the mainstream
newspapers, radio and television would not give them the
time of day. Now they can," he explained.
But
this has not translated into more openness among
ordinary citizens, Pillai said.
Steven Gan,
editor-in-chief of the popular online news site
malaysiakini.com, said that Malaysia's approach to
information technology - Internet penetration rate is
expected to rise from 7 percent in 2001 to 25 percent in
2005 - has been focused on drawing foreign investments
and commerce, not on pushing freer discussion.
"The government does not want to encourage
e-democracy. E-commerce, yes. E-government - in terms of
reducing bureaucracy paperwork, yes. But e-democracy -
whether viable or not, the fear factor is there to
retard open discussion. The writers normally use
pseudonyms. Subscribers [to mailing lists] are also
afraid so they use the anonymous e-mail," he said.
Despite the government's assurance that the
Internet will not be censored, it continues to control
the medium through licensing bureaucracies, pricing
structures, and application of libel and national
security laws through its less-than-independent
judiciary. The Internet backbone Joint Advanced Research
Networking also comes under the jurisdiction of the
government agency called Malaysian Institute of
Microelectronics Operating System.
Content
regulations place the onus on list owners to ensure that
what is communicated in bulletin boards do not break the
law, thus compelling providers and list owners to become
indirect censors to avoid prosecution.
The issue
of whether and how the Internet can plant the seeds of
openness also touches on factors that include the degree
of community interest and participation in public
affairs, which experts say are not particularly high in
countries like Malaysia and neighboring Singapore, for
instance.
"For e-democracy to succeed - in
Malaysia or elsewhere - there must be a citizenry that
wants it. When [people] look at politics as being of no
importance, and have no concept of community living, and
keep their counsel when they disagree or not speak out
if they have a point of view, how could it translate
into this new-fangled thing like e-democracy?" Pillai
said.
The fact that Internet connections are
concentrated in urban areas like the capital Kuala
Lumpur and Klang Valley also means that select groups in
this country of 24.4 million people have access to
information resources on-line. More than half of
Internet subscribers are concentrated in the Klang
Valley in Selangor, government figures show. Nine
percent are in Johor and 7 percent in the northern city
of Penang.
Kuala Lumpur has the highest
penetration rate with about 104 subscribers per 1,000,
followed by Selangor and Penang with 85 and 52. Plans
for increasing Internet penetration rate aim to enhance
accessibility in rural areas. Beyond this, however,
Pillai said, "the government has no clear plan for wider
Internet access".
"It went slow after the
plethora of reformasi websites. Instead of
confronting them, and replying and arguing with them,
they went into rigor mortis. The last thing it wants is
to engage with the opposition, for it believes it can
govern without them," he said.
Looking back at
the past decade, Kiranjit Kaur, chair of the civic group
committee in the Communication and Multimedia Content
Forum in Malaysia, said that the impact that many
expected the Internet to have on political openness may
be "limited" for now.
Not least, he said, many
people today use the Internet for leisure and personal
communication rather than for other purposes.
"The current trend of Internet usage is more for
chatting and non-productive use. Also, the
infrastructure and access are still limited. However,
once the society gets used to taking their discussions
on the Internet more seriously, and there is wider usage
of it, it may have more effect," Kaur said.
(Inter Press Service)
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