Asiaweek: Malaysia Not Ready For IT
Viewpoint: Malaysia Into the eWorld?
Not if it keeps spending on glitz
rather than education
SAIFUDDIN NASUTION ISMAIL is a supreme council member of
Keadilan (National Justice), a Malaysian opposition party
During a recent
seminar at a Malaysian university, three panelists — all top managers at information
technology companies — agreed that the government has gone wrong in its attempt to
take the country into the Information Age. Instead of investing in human resources, the
government is spending a great deal to develop a high-tech township, Cyberjaya, anchor
of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). Cyberjaya offers real estate so expensive that
few I.T. companies are willing to set up there, although officials reckon 88 of some
380 I.T. companies approved for the MSC will have moved in by year's end. Right now the
desolation at Cyberjaya makes one think it should be renamed Cyberia. And the MSC, some say,
is becoming like a huge property project.
What's happening with the MSC is typical
of many things in Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's Malaysia. The obsession with
appearance and building glitzy monuments is diverting resources away from undertakings
that are critical to the country's stated goal of becoming a key player in I.T. The paradox
is evident in some decisions. For example, the government says it wants to move into
high-tech, but education is treated as a stepchild. In 1996 the Ministry of Education
reduced the number of years for undergraduate degrees from three to four, except for
medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. It also reduced the minimum units for basic pure
science and arts degrees to 100 from 118-120, though this affects only electives. But Malaysia
should be adding content or at least improving it.
Another example of misallocated
resources is the billions spent on the new administrative capital Putrajaya and its
twin, Cyberjaya. This at a time when there are still 470 schools in Malaysia without
electricity. One boon of I.T. is its potential to lower the barrier for the
underprivileged in moving up economically. One doesn't need a university degree to
learn programming or acquire the know-how to produce graphic designs for multimedia
applications. In the Information Age it is never too late for someone to leave the
cattle or shovel and learn to use the keyboard and motherboard. Kids in rural Malaysia
would benefit most from a well thought-out and implemented I.T. program. Yet it is they
who are being denied such opportunities.
Like other developing nations, Malaysia
should be concerned about bringing its large rural community — half the population of
22 million — into mainstream development. The gap between rural and urban areas has
widened after a decade of 10% GDP growth. Today it is reported that 1.5 million Malaysians
(mostly urbanites) have a Web-based hotmail e-mail address — more than the total
registered with TM Net and Jaring, the country's two Internet service providers. While
the hotmail number is encouraging, it is disturbing that this has widened the digital
divide in the country.
Disturbing, too, is Mahathir's inability to understand that
entering the Information Age means more than plugging into fancy hardware. Fundamental is
creating the climate that enables start-up companies to innovate and invent. Malaysia
could learn more from Silicon Valley with its diversity and openness. These attributes
cannot develop if the governmental climate does not tolerate dissent and diversity, and
breeds docility. The experience of a friend, a professor at a Malaysian university, is illustrative
of this climate. He had offered his article about the International Organization for
Standardization to a few local newspapers for publication. It discussed seeking ISO
certification, nothing political. No newspaper published it, and one editor admitted
that he was not going to because ISO initiatives were seen as a pet project of Mahathir.
John
Lawler of the University of Illinois says Asian values, with their emphasis on
hierarchy and collectivism, are ill-suited to the development of a work environment
that will engender creativity. This emphasis breeds conformity. Change, when it
happens, tends to be slow. The I.T. industry demands nimbleness and radical changes.
Malaysia is doubly handicapped. Not only is it a very hierarchical society, it is
hamstrung by Mahathir's notion of Asian values. In a nutshell, this sees
authoritarianism as good for development. His Asian values also mean a justice system
that lately has been criticized within and outside the country. Malaysia may have all kinds
of cyber law, but will the investor have confidence in the justice system to enforce
it?
Foreign I.T. companies interested in investing in Malaysia have many alternatives.
They can also consider India, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Why should they choose
Malaysia? It has a young and relatively inexpensive workforce, which is also
hardworking and very trainable. But these companies will also see that Malaysia has a
leader who uses foreigners as a bogey to deflect attention from his own flaws.
Dissenters are labeled foreign agents. And they will see that while Malaysia has
invested hugely in modern physical infrastructure, its socio-psycho infrastructure
remains stuck in the medieval age. The Information Age should provide Malaysians with
the potential to soar to new heights, but this leadership doesn't have what it takes to
seize the opportunity.
