Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : MERDEKA HALL, PUTRA WORLD
TRADE CENTRE
Tarikh/Date : 19/12/96
Tajuk/Title : THE INFOTECH MALAYSIA `96
1. Let me first welcome all of you to INFOTECH
Malaysia `96, which is an annual dialogue with the
planners, developers, and implementors of
Information Technology (IT) applications. The
discussions at this dialogue hopefully will form the
basis for formulating an integrated IT agenda for
the country.
2. Since the 1970s, Malaysia has been involved in
the global electrical and electronics (E&E) industry
and it is today the largest export sector of the
nation. Nevertheless, the development of the E&E
sector has been primarily driven by MNCs and the
local value-added content of the exports remains
marginal. Most of the local value-added has come
mainly from testing and assembly operations with
little or no national focus on finished products.
Similarly, the computerisation effort within both
the public and private sectors has also developed
only the hardware infrastructure or technology
acquisition capability, with limited work on
software or content development and customisation.
As a result, today, the national capability in
information technology design and development is
still rather limited. The bottom-up approach to IT
development has obviously not resulted in much
technology transfer in terms of indigenous design
capability either in production of IT related
products or even in the development of IT
applications. With the convergence of computing,
telecommunications and broadcasting in the
multimedia industry, it is now imperative that we
develop our own socio-technical capability for a
smoother transition into the information age.
3. This reengineering of the national capability
must first of all begin with a more determined top-
down leadership in the development of IT
applications. It is equally important that the new
approach brings about radical changes in the shape,
structure and quality of relationships among the key
players. IT and the knowledge-based industries must
be able to generate a new impetus for change and
growth. The information age demands that second
wave technologies be transformed into new industrial
structures associated with what are today called
`webs*.
4. The Government, through the National
Information Technology Council (NITC), has therefore
assumed the role of providing the necessary
leadership for the development of IT in Malaysia.
The NITC is a partnership of public-private sector
captains formed in 1994 to discuss, deliberate and
articulate the IT Agenda for the nation. The MSC is
one direct, clear and strategic outcome from the
NITC deliberations. The MSC is a conscious national
attempt at developing multimedia applications within
the designated area. The MSC will also leverage the
transformation of the rest of the country into the
information age and the digital economy. Such a
transformation will involve every sphere of life,
whether social, political, economic, cultural,
intellectual or psychological. The scope must also
extend to the entire nation and improve the total
quality of life for all Malaysians.
5. The MSC will begin with the development of
eight flagship multimedia applications to propel
Malaysia into the information age. The improved
connection through better telecommunications
capability within the MSC would also allow the rest
of the country and the world to participate in its
development. For instance, one of the flagship
applications within the MSC is the development of an
R&D cluster. In fact, through the MSC the person
should even be able to collaborate with R&D centres
around the world to undertake research. That is
exactly our vision for the MSC: by investing in the
hard and soft infrastructure necessary for
multimedia applications, we will make it possible to
create a truly borderless community within and
through the MSC. Through this borderless research
concept, the researcher should for example be able
to undertake concurrent design engineering of a new
car engine in collaboration with partners in France
or the United Kingdom without even leaving his
office.
6. Apart from the leadership and the technology
push provided through the MSC, the real challenge
will also be the creation of the demand pull for
high quality IT services by the rest of the country.
Such a demand pull will make the MSC Flagship
applications even more meaningful. Therefore, while
the MSC becomes the focus of our effort, the rest of
the country, be it industry or R&D institution or
Government agencies, must also contribute directly
to the success of the MSC. The successful
development of the MSC is fundamentally linked to
the preparedness of the rest of the nation to usher
in the information age.
7. The `internet-worked' electronic global village
today offers us many lessons about the speed and
influence of the information explosion. This
explosion, if carefully applied to national and
local problem resolution, can actually create the
demand pull for service applications within the MSC.
Through the power of information networking, our
school children can do research through electronic
libraries accessible via the Internet. Consumers
will be able to pay their taxes and dues via the
internet to local authorities. Soon, even the
electoral process may use electronic means to
determine governments. The Internet as an early
signal of the information age has already begun its
revolutionary impact.
8. Vision 2020 calls for the building of a
developed nation in our own mould. The mission of
the IT Agenda must therefore be to nurture a
knowledge society premised on our own history,
tradition, culture and development experiences.
This knowledge society must also become a civil
society. The transition from merely accessing
information to infusing knowledge and becoming a
civilisation is subtle but critical. The creation
of a civil society will be the ultimate vision of
the IT Agenda.
9. A civil society of the future must be a society
where the wise rule and the people actively
participate in determining their destiny. The
ownership of knowledge may be less privatised and
personalised but will become trusteeships of civil
property. The pursuit and application of knowledge
will continue for the personal and public good.
Electronic governance may help realise the ideals of
a participative democracy with greater transparency.
One cornerstone of civility will remain the notion
of human dignity. The right of individuals against
poverty and starvation is also a basic and an
inalienable human right. This is our notion of a
genuinely caring society, one which is duty-bound to
take care of the interests of everyone in society.
10. Many civilisations in the past have attempted
to develop the civil society. Yet most have failed.
Some are still carrying on with their experiments.
Therefore, in our desire and enthusiasm of becoming
a knowledge society, we must keep in context a few
key issues related to the downside of the IT and the
Internet-driven transformation.
11. The information age also brings with it
concomitant problems and challenges. In the old
days when something happened somewhere it took time
for others to hear about it. Today news travels
almost instantly. Distant truth is almost virtual
reality. In such a context, one of the effects of
the decentralisation of the medium and the messages
is a loss of control over events. The Government
alone will no longer be able to control content once
it is processed through the electronic media.
Therefore, censorship and control of content becomes
a serious issue. Censorship may not remain
administratively the sole responsibility of public
agencies. It may have to be transferred to all
societal organisations and institutions. As a
result, the family unit and the school in
particular, the corporation and the community will
have to undertake responsibility for censorship and
the strenghtening of values in the information age.
12. From the national perspective, the use and
application of information technology must lead to a
better quality of life for all Malaysians. The two
issues of equity and universal access will continue
to remain key issues in our multi-racial, multi-
religious society. The application of IT must
consider how to improve the quality of life for all
Malaysians, whether urban or rural. Our vision of
creating a developed nation by 2020 includes the
challenges of ensuring an economically just society,
a fully caring society, and a mature, liberal and
tolerant society. The IT Agenda must consciously
seek to address these socio-economic issues as well.
13. From the international perspective, the IT
Agenda clearly places our national aspirations at
the centre of the global technology, trade and
investment context. The real challenge is to
ensure that IT related investments produce not only
profits for the investors but also result in
Malaysians moving from being mere consumers to
producers and innovators of technology. Malaysians
must attempt to become new service providers through
leveraging on IT. Therefore, priority is no more
assigned merely to the quantity but quality of
investments which Malaysia attracts and the degree
to which indigenous technology and domestic partners
contribute to value-added activities. We hope that
the MSC can be viewed as an IT framework for smart
partnerships.
14. With the MSC we are actually creating an
investment haven in the middle of palm oil
plantations to usher in the third wave of
information and knowledge industries. Would this
create dysfunctionalities within the nation? Would
the initiative crowd out the locals? Is it giving
unfair advantage to technology owners? Would it
destroy and pollute our environment? These are all
valid questions but they may beg the issue of who we
really are.
15. Having initiated a ripple effect through the
MSC for the IT Agenda, the greatest challenge facing
the MSC and the nation is content creation. Content
creation will determine the substance and success of
the IT Agenda of turning the ripples into tidal
waves of change and transformation. The IT Agenda
would have a three-pronged strategy with a clear
mission of building a Knowledge Society. The
foundational strategy remains that of building and
developing the appropriate physical infrastructure
and infostructure. The second strategy would be the
creation and development of enrichment systems or IT-
based applications that are demand driven. Again,
the MSC's eight flagship applications provide an
opportunity for both participation and learning. We
are negotiating for the support and assistance of
some of the best companies in the world to share
their technology and know-how with us. These
companies are also looking for a platform to test
their products and ideas. When they come, the
Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) will ensure
that they will cooperate with locals to create smart
partnerships because we are creating some of the
best platforms in the world for such multimedia
applications. Again, multiple opportunities are
available for local entrepreneurs to collaborate on
the development of new applications.
16. The third strategy of the IT Agenda will remain
the human development effort. Both individuals and
groups have to acculturate themselves to deal with
`intelligent' or `smart' systems while still
remaining smarter than the systems or applications
they help create. The human development effort
would involve all educational and training systems,
whether formal or informal, from the primary to the
tertiary and continuing education systems.
17. Through the MSC, I believe, we have jump
started a process for change, particularly the
legal framework for IT as an accepted medium for
business and commerce. The Bills for three of the
Cyber Laws will be tabled in Parliament at its next
sitting early next year. The success of all these
new initiatives is dependent on people being ready
to adapt and adopt to the changes. Knowledge
workers can drive the change process especially in
creating demand-driven content and developing the
applications. The education and acculturation
process must finally lead to complete transformation
of both society and individuals.
18. The Government has set the target of beginning
the Electronic Government project with the Prime
Minister's office. Beginning with this Department,
the Government will become the role model. This
provides not only business opportunities for the
private sector but also a conceptual challenge to
all public servants. The aim of electronic
governance is to improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of government services. The Federal
Government will begin with Putrajaya. I believe
this can be a key impetus for nationwide
transformation of government services.
19. This Conference through the different Panel
discussions will generate alternative views on how
we can proceed. We hope that the dialogue
framework we have created would give opportunities
for everyone to feel included. Even this process is
an evolving one and we will improve as we move
along. As the adage goes, the IT Agenda is not
merely a destination but a journey that Malaysians
need to travel together. There will be some key
challenges that the delegates may want to address
within the IT Agenda. These include:
- While developing and defining a civil
minimum for IT access and capability, how does one
balance between the rights and duties of
individuals, and that of society and the
environment?
- In ensuring the regional distribution of
IT and knowledge based industries, how do we ensure
that resource allocation policies continue to offset
infrastructure limitations already present in
certain regions?
- What new opportunities are offered through
the convergence of IT and telecommunications
technologies to reenfranchise to include the
different disadvantaged groups into the mainstream
of development.
- What indicators and evaluation systems can
we put in place to ensure the move from an
Information to a Knowledge Society and ultimately to
a Civil Society.
20. The MSC is our own bold new initiative to turn
IT ripples into waves of change. The MSC flagship
applications are designed to mobilise the total
resources of the nation. This will however take
place only if the nation as a whole commits itself
to becoming a knowledge society.
21. On that note, I declare this Second Annual
INFOTECH Malaysia Conference and the ITX open.
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