I believe that the biggest defect about the national IT development in the country is the lack of a coherent and integrated National IT policy and strategy based on a national consensus about the importance of Malaysia making the transition to the Information Society, that IT is not just about technology or commercial considerations but how to improve the quality of life of all Malaysians and that in the new millennium, the line between success and failure of nations is digital.
The Internet, for instance, is a powerful tool, not a solution. As Nicholas Negroponte said in Being Digital, “Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living.”
In the ultimate analysis, the IT revolution must be about people, how it would completely change the way people work, live, learn and play, and not about the power of microprocessors or bandwidths. This is why any National IT Policy, Strategy and Plan must be people-centred and not project-centred or MSC-centred.
The phrases “IT” and “Information Society” have not become part of the Malaysian public’s vocabulary. There is widespread fear of the computer or technophobia, particularly those above 40, highlighting the lack of attention and efforts to break down the social, educational and psychological barriers creating the fears of the unknown and suspicion of the new which are serious handicaps to gain the potential benefits offered by the new information and communication technologies to improve the quality of life of Malaysians.
How many MPs who are going to pass the first batch of cyberlaws in the forthcoming Parliament really understand IT or how it would impact on the lives of ordinary people in the decades to come?
There are still many people who know nothing about IT or who cannot understand the importance or relevance of IT - wanting to know how IT is going to help farmers, hawkers or workers to immediately increase their incomes
This is best reflected by the TV interview given by the Prime Minister last month when he realised that very few Malaysians understood the MSC, but the questions in the interview were not so much on MSC, but on the IT revolution as a whole, showing that very few Malaysians still undertand what IT is all about.
Although the government embraced IT in May 1993 when it set up the National Information Technology Council to be its think-tank and adviser in the co-ordination and leadership in the planning and management of IT as a strategic tool for national socio-economic development, we must concede that neither our people nor our institutions nor most of our companies are really prepared for the new information technologies.
Let me give two illustrations. Parliament put up a homepage in May last year not because it wants to be in the forefront of the digital revolution but just to shut me up from repeatedly complaining in the Dewan Rakyat about Parliament having no website and being a “dinosaur refusing to bestir from its pre-IT stupor when the country is preparing to enter the Information Age”.
In December last year, I told Parliament that it might be better to close down the Parliamentary homepage unless it could be more than an archive, and be interactive and contain current topics like the business and record of Parliament, the daily Notice Papers, the Order of Business and Daily Programme, the Parliamentary Questions and Answers, a Hansard retrieval programme, the House Votes and Proceedings, Committee transcripts, etc. There has been no improvement since then.
This may be why the Parliamentary Homepage has been able to attract only 4,800 visits since it was webbed in May last year, despite using a web counter which is activated with every reloading!
The Parliament homepage is not only unable to be interactive with the public, it is also not interactive with MPs, as Members of Parliament are not consulted or involved in any manner with its conception, construction or content.
This IT disease of the Parliamentary homepage is also suffered by many Ministries and government agencies, which put up websites on the Internet not because they want to provide better online information and services, but so as not to be seen as IT-illiterate or backward - completely without the mindset required for an Information Society.