I call on parents to invest in the future of their children by creating the home environment where they could be computer literate, although they themselves may know nothing about computers and may be afraid of computers.
It has been estimated for the United States, by the beginning of the next century - which is less than four years away - 60 per cent of the new jobs will require computer skills.
There are no similar statistics for Malaysia, but undoubtedly, the trend is the same.
I have just received figures from the Minister for Science, Technology and Environment, Datuk Law Hieng Ding, which shows that Pahang has one of the lowest number of people who have subscribed to Jaring, to enable them to access the Internet.
May be there is not a single person in Triang who has subscribed to Jaring, as he will have to face the prohibitive costs of phoning Kuantan in order to access the Internet.
This should be regarded as a serious problem by the authorities as well as by the parents themselves, for they will be putting their children at a disadvantage as compared to those who are able to give their children a computer environment to prepare for the information age.
According to Law’s figures, as on December 15, 1996, there are 50,208 subscribers to Jaring, with the following breakdown:
Kuala Lumpur 13,584 Selangor 12,693 Penang 6,135 Sarawak 3,410 Johore 3,243 Sabah 2,485 Perak 2,912 Kedah 927 Malacca 881 Negri Sembilan 711 Pahang 665 Kelantan 491 Trengganu 354 Perlis 129 Others 32 Total 50,208Although these figures do not include those who have subscribed to the second Internet Access Provider, TMnet which started service in November, there is clearly a need for a national campaign to raise the Internet uptake rate in Malaysia so that Malaysia will not fall behind in the international race into the Information Age.
(20/12/96)