[ Index ]
 

The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation, Apec, summit in Brunei ended on 17 November 2000. It agrees to develop a policy framework that would enable the urban, provincial and rural communities in every country to have individual or community-based access to information and services offered via the Internet by 2010.

As a first step towards this goal, Apec members aim to triple the number of people within the region with access to the Internet by 2005.

Out of 23 million Malaysians, only about 1.2 million have access to Internet. This is behind many countries such as Singapore.

The focus is on the Ministries of Education, Science, Technology and Environment as well as Energy, Communications and Multimedia to implement ICT projects successfully. So far, there is heated argument in Parliament on the slow implementation of these projects especially in rural areas.

On 17 November 2000, the Minister for Science, Technology and Environment Datuk Law Hieng Ding said that Desa (Rural) Digital project had been submitted to the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister's Department. It is under the Eighth Malaysia Plan. Mimos Berhad will run the project.

"Desa Digital will enable rural folks (farmers, fishermen and others ) to use ICT infrastructure and facilities to increase their income," he added.

We hope that Mimos will implement Desa Digital project successfully. We do not know how it is going to overcome rural people's mastery of English that is the language of computer especially Internet.

The 2001 Malaysian budget does not mention urban poor. Kuala Lumpur has over 34,000 licensed hawkers, of whom nearly 11,000 are Malays, 20,000 Chinese and 3,000 Indians.The Government has yet to come out with Bandar (Urban) Digital project to enable hawkers, petty traders and others of all races to use ICT infrastructure and facilities to increase their income. We are also pressing for this type of project.

The Education Ministry is thinking of ways to improve the standard of English among students. Its shortsightedness in scuttling the teaching of English in the 70s last century is startling. Its feeble efforts in the last few years have not produced the desired result.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin said that his ministry had planned short, medium and long term strategies to arrest the declining standard of English among students.

Like most people, he believes that the mastering of English is essential as it is the language of the k-economy. The Japanese and the French, who are proud of their own languages, are mulling over the use of English.

While we are planning for more effective ways to teach our national language, English, mandarin and Tamil, ICT continues to develop.
We must ensure that all projects such as the teaching of English language, Desa digital and (Bandar Digital) are implemented successfully.