irthrifty;
<<Is technology and "connectivity" a friend or foe of the political powers that be in Malaysia and SE Asia?
What a fascinating question. I suspect it deserves an examination by someone with greater thinking skills then mine. But here is a stab. It is both IMHO. And the degree to which it is both may vary from country to country.
In Malaysia there was a debate over the degree to which the Internet would be available and uncensored. Largely at the behest of the government, and its desire to see the success of the MSC, uncensored internet access won the day. They realized that Western technology companies would not sign up for the MSC as long as there were draconian attempts by the government to control access. This was not easy for them to decide. Malaysia is a religous state,an Islamic one, that has very rigid rules that would be crossed by almost any Internet news provider for example. In addition they understood just how difficult it would be to attempt any censorship. To be sure, there are still rules based on local content. That is to say, that locally posted content may be subject to censor and worse.
In terms of technology's contribution to the region we must say it has been good and a significant part of the economic sucesses here. Technology companies are large employers here, and they will play a significant role in the recovery. I think that governments like Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, realize just how important to the future a technologically literate populace is. It is one reason that in Malaysia, there are no import duties on computers while TVs and stereos have very high tariffs.
Therefore I would say governments here will not discourage technology in the aggregate and , in fact, will encourage it at most levels. They will, however, continue to monitor and censor some content.
best,
Stitch |
