Asia nations cautious on Internet

Asia nations cautious on Internet

By Ajoy Sen

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Asia's rapidly growing economies are using
Internet to integrate themselves with the world economy but some
of the region's governments are not entirely comfortable with the
phenomenon.

The rise in the popularity of the global network has alarmed
some governments, which fear unbridled access could lead to
distribution of pornography, spread religious unorthodoxy or
encourage political dissidence.

None of the governments has come up with any foolproof plan to
prevent the inflow of undesirable material on the network, and
experts say such control is technically difficult.

Yet most Asian countries also see the benefits of a network
with 30 million users, and there has been a rapid growth of users
in the region -- from academics and computer buffs to government
agencies running sophisticated information boards.

China, for example operates five main Internet systems, three
of them serving the scientific community.

CERNET, linking major Chinese universities, will spread the
net to students and professors at 100 campuses this year and
1,000 by the end of the decade. "If China doesn't have this
information technology that we are developing here, then China
cannot develop," Li Xing, CERNET's lead architect, said.

Singapore's government runs a one-stop digital information
center, Infomap, to highlight information about the island.

In Vietnam, the Vietnam Academic Research and Educational
Network (VARENET) started in April last year, with hubs in Hanoi
and Ho Chi Minh City, and has about 140 institutions as members.

Pakistan is due to introduce the Internet by this December.

The Internet, a global network of computer users is linked by
telephone lines. Users can exchange electronic mail or post
messages on business deals, swap information, scan research
published by universities, governments and companies and shop
across the world.

While individuals and companies in the region continue to join
the information superhighway, Asian governments are keen to
protect traditional conservative values.

A senior official in Singnet, one of two state-linked
organizations in Singapore involved with providing the service,
told Reuters it is technically impossible to control the entire
inflow of information on Internet.

Ong Wee Cheong, product manager of Singnet, said it
selectively posts materials for users. But Singapore remains
concerned about defamatory language used in and about the more
sleazy part of the Internet, such as pictures from Playboy and
Penthouse magazines, which are banned in Singapore.

While warning against excessive regulation, acting Environment
Minister and National Information Technology Committee chairman,
Teo Chee Hean, said: "A sense of balance is required, and some
control is required to ensure that we can reap the benefits and
shut out or minimize the dangers."

In China, the chief of the China Education and Research
Network, or CERNET, Wu Jianping, said the country's leaders fret
over an influx of "detrimental" ideas.

But they had accepted assurances that operators have both
technical and less delicate means of filtering out pornography
and political dissent. "They know there is a sure-fire way -- you
turn off the power," Wu said.

With the availability of cheaper computers and reasonable
service fees charged by most service providers, the Internet has
become a major business incentive for poor countries like
Vietnam, where owning a computer was a dream some years ago.

In communist Vietnam, problems of control and access do not
really arise yet because it is a newcomer to the Internet, with
two systems and only a few hundred users.

In fast-developing Indonesia, the Secretary-General of the
Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, Jonathan
Parapak, while saying the Internet was an unavoidable consequence
of globalization, warned Indonesians on its uses.

Indointernet, the largest of the four private providers, has
about 2,300 customers. It said that while more than 60 percent of
those were business people, most just used the system's e-mail to
keep in touch with staff and clients.

Abdul Hafeez, a senior scientist at Pakistan's state-owned
National Institute of Electronics, told Reuters he did not
believe that Internet access would lead to a sudden flood of
pornography and blasphemy.

Rather, access would be limited by the small number of nodes
and hosts available to users. The service provider could also
intervene to stop undesirable discussion groups and electronic
messages, he said.