Internet expands its tentacles across Asia<\/p>\n
Authoritarian governments, military juntas and freedom
\nfighters across Asia are scrambling to get wired. Johanna Son
\nreports for Inter Press Service.<\/p>\n
MANILA: Vietnam's premier gets electronic mail from his
\nforeign counterparts. The Indonesian military plans to post its
\nown information on the Internet and Tibetan exiles use it to
\nreport the latest on what the Chinese are up to.<\/p>\n
As communication costs plummet and cross-border electronic
\navenues expand Asian governments, separatist group and activists
\nare all busy building links to the global information
\nsuperhighway known as the Internet.<\/p>\n
The region now has more than 1.5 million of the world's 50
\nmillion Internet users, two-thirds of them in Japan. Businessmen,
\nactivists, journalists and governments are logging on as Asia-
\nPacific personal computer sales soar and Internet providers
\nproliferate in countries like China, Vietnam, Singapore, the
\nPhilippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Suddenly no place is too
\nremote: you can dial up from Mongolia or Nepal.<\/p>\n
Singapore's information minister, George Yeo, says the city
\nstate \"needs to establish borderless communication in order to
\ndevelop Singapore as a regional information hub\".<\/p>\n
But some experts warn that while the glitter of technology
\npromises to bring countries closer to the information age, the
\ninformation superhighway also has pot-holes that may affect its
\nutility for Asia and the developing world.<\/p>\n
Roberto Verzola of the Manila-based E-mail Center says it may
\nbe worth looking beyond electronic communication itself, which is
\nafter all a technological tool that can be used in many ways.
\nMuch of the information on the net is free because the network
\nbegan as a non-commercial endeavor, but Verzola says this is
\nlikely to change. \"It is actually going to become infrastructure
\nfor distributing goods by rich countries to poor countries.\"<\/p>\n
As North America and Europe increasingly become information
\neconomies, Verzola says the flow of information-based products
\nand services to the developing world, which is often at the
\nreceiving end of such information, will pick up.<\/p>\n
\"There is very strong pressure from the commercial sector and
\nits-free market ideology, which does not speak about free goods
\nbut goods for sale,\" he said, \"Originally this is the public
\ncommons of information available worldwide, but it is slowly
\ngoing to be privatized.\"<\/p>\n
Northern users, ranging from business to activists, have
\neasier and cheaper access to electronic communication and the
\nInternet than developing countries, many of which are still
\nstruggling with high computer and communication costs.<\/p>\n
In an October review of the Internet and the South, the
\nLondon-based Panos Institute said: \"Worldwide, the flow of
\ninformation, like the balance of power, is essentially North to
\nSouth rather than the other way around.\"<\/p>\n
The danger of the information superhighway ending up a one-way
\nstreet carries over to its use by activist groups, which are
\namong those most benefited by e-mail and the Internet and have
\ngalvanized global protest campaigns in cyberspace.<\/p>\n
While getting hooked up is a matter of putting together a
\ncomputer, modem and phone line, in developing Asia this is still
\nout of reach of most individual and organizations. And an
\nInternet surfer in Indonesia could spend 12 times more on access
\nfees than a European user.<\/p>\n
\"Because it is cheaper than other forms of telecommunications
\nand gives access to a huge amount of information, it has the
\npotential to narrow the existing North-South information gap,\"
\nthe Panos report said. \"but it relies on technology which is much
\nless accessible and much more expensive in the South than in the
\nindustrialized world.\"<\/p>\n
Eighty percent of the world's people, do not even have access
\nto a telephone. And while the United States has more than one
\nInternet host computer per 100 persons, nearly 50 countries, many
\nof them in Asia and Africa, have less than one telephone per 100
\npeople.<\/p>\n
These numbers are likely to change in the coming years, as
\ngovernments open up telecommunications sectors. Today, over 160
\ncountries have links to the Internet, over 100 nations directly
\nand best by e-mail networks.<\/p>\n
Far from disregarding the Internet, activists say Asian
\nnations that come on-line must not be content with just being
\nconsumers and receivers of data and must use and generate
\ninformation that makes their presence felt on the Net.<\/p>\n
For the growing number of Asians who have discovered the
\nwonders of electronic communications, on-line links have been no
\nless than liberating. Activists in Malaysia can talk freely with
\nthe outside world, discussing matters too sensitive at home.
\nChats on the Internet's World Wide Web trash Vietnam's Communist
\nParty and political restrictions in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Some Asian governments have mixed feelings about opening up to
\nglobal on-line links. But electronic communication is much harder
\nto censor, and they know opening up comes with boosting
\ncompetitiveness and integration into the world economy.<\/p>\n
Yeo says Singapore, whose state-owned telecoms firm leases out
\nInternet lines, will still try to police the infobahn even if
\ncensorship in the electronic age \"can no longer be 100 percent
\neffective\". Singapore's twin aims of becoming a regional
\ninformation hub and keeping out cultural and moral pollution from
\nthe West are \"not a contradiction but a challenge\".<\/p>\n
He said the government, which keeps a tight watch on media and
\nbans private ownership of satellite dishes, could be less harsh
\non discussions on the net. \"It is such a jungle there. You can
\nhave all kinds of discussion in odd corners, and no one except
\nthe most determined will take notice.\"<\/p>\n
Singapore's officials suggest countering \"falsehoods\" that
\ncrop up on the Internet, while Indonesia's military says it will
\ngo on-line to fight \"misinformation\" about Jakarta.<\/p>\n
China, whose first commercial supplier began operating in
\nJune, wants to ensure that political dissent and pornography can
\nbe kept out. Telecommunications Minister Wu Juchuan said: \"By
\nlinking with the Internet, we do not mean the absolute freedom of
\ninformation.\"<\/p>\n
Already, electronic communication has opened up frontiers in
\nsocieties unused to open debate. And as the ease of hooking up
\nincreases, the price of controlling information is going up. For
\nmany countries, that alone may make getting wired worth the
\neffort.<\/p>\n
-- IPS<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/internet-expands-its-tentacles-across-asia-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }