Internet in Asia Update

17th September 1996

The latest Nielson survey estimates that 1 in 5 people in the US are now accessing the Net. That is a significant number, but what of Internet connections in Asia. BYTE magazine recently published an estimate of connections in August which, in quick summary is:

Total Internet Users in Asia
(Byte Extra International section, August 1996, p.17)

Country	1995	1997
Japan	1,600,000	3,500,000
South Korea	100,000	525,000
Malaysia	100,000	495,000
Singapore	100,000	495,000
Taiwan	70,000	480,000
Thailand	35,000	140,000
Hong Kong	32,000	423,000
Philippines	20,000	150,000
Indonesia	10,000	100,000
China	15,000	200,000

If these figures are correct, (and they have already attracted some controversy), the Internet in Asia is becoming a viable business communication method. However some problems remain, in addition to the poor telecommunications infrastructure in several of these countries, brought on by fast recent development and overcrowding.

Firstly, English remains the language of the Internet, and while development is well underway on developing the software and hardware to communicate in other, especially non-Latin script languages, it still disenfranchises a significant and already deprived proportion of the populace.

Of the 3 significant economies that put controls and curbs on Net access, the People's Republic of China must be the leader. Germany, Singapore and China are all countries that have good reason to be concerned about uncensored Net content. Germany has an enormous problem with extremist political groups and a reunification task that was always going to be difficult. Singapore has become one of the most successful economies in the world, partly because of a deliberate policy to suppress racial and political tensions by controlling access to external information, especially that contrary to the views of the government. The Internet for both countries presents a significant challenge. How to make sure that the business benefits of the Internet are exploited while at the same time, retaining control of what citizens can and can not read. While the latter may be anathema to advocates of the right of free expression, it cannot be denied that, In Singapore's case at least, it has been a major factor in their astounding economic success. (Though some would say, at the expense of social success). However China, who politically for many years (and yes it is an infinitesimal small proportion of Chinese history as a whole) have controlled information within a far more totalitarian system than Singapore, and certainly the old West Germany.

Chinese internet affeciandos woke last week to find access to major US media sources blocked, including Web sites as the New York Times, CNN and just about every major US business newspaper you could expect. Of course the excellent China News Digest, which provides a pro democratic voice evaporated into the ether as well. Also gone were all Taiwanese government sites as well as many other non-government sites as well

But apart from comparisons of different countries, the censoring activity is on the upsurge. Malaysia and Thailand, though not as advanced as the others in filtering content, will possibly do so very soon. Thailand's Telecommunications Authority at the moment charges such a high amount for Internet providers that access in Thailand is already limited to those that can afford it, and is possibly more concerned about religious and sexual content in this devout Buddhist country. Malaysia, with a harder job to control access in a very ethnically and religiously diverse country manages a fairly effective system of self-censorship, without being as authoritative as the Singapore authorities. Here, the press tend to censor themselves and the government very rarely has to intervene. There are ways and means to silence dissidents by gentle persuasion where enforcement of laws is often subjective.

Given that the freedom of the press is highly related to the social and political maturity of a country, and that censoring of the Internet is a far harder job that censoring the print or broadcast media via traditional customs procedures, it may well be that the coming of the Internet, in the end, will be facilitator of a move to a more open style of media, and the development of critical thinking abilities in the respective populaces. We look forward to the time when governments in ASEAN trust their citizens not to believe everything they read, rather than ask them to believe everything they read and then only provide the things they want them to read!