4. Connectivity Architecture in Malaysia through a Gender Lens

The UN E-government survey 2014 breaks down Malaysia’s Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII) and its components as shown in Table 2.

Table 2.
Malaysia’s Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII) and Its Components 2014

Country TII Percentage of individuals using the Internet Fixed-telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants Wireless broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants

Malaysia

0.4455

65.80

15.69

141.33

8.41

13.59

With a projection of a population size of 30.49 million27 and 7,435 households28 at the end of the second quarter of 2015, the penetration rates for broadband per 100 inhabitants was 91.7 per cent and per 100 households was 72.2 per cent (MCMC 2015a: 3). The broadband penetration rate per 100 households was 61.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2015, however, with wide variations among states (MCMC 2015a: 6). The penetration rate for cellular phones per 100 inhabitants was 144.8 per cent and the fixed Direct Exchange Line (DEL) penetration rate per 100 households was 28.4 per cent (MCMC 2015a: 3). In addition to these, there are facilities for community access: 562 1Malaysia Internet Centres that serve 471,855 members, 120 Mini Community Broadband Centres, 44 Community Broadband Libraries, and 5,860 Community Wifi centres (MCMC 2015a: 8). These community centres are provided under the Universal Service Provision (USP) Program of the MCMC.29 One of the most significant and widely ac­claimed e-government projects in Malaysia is e-Bario which was implemented in 2001. e-Bario started out as a smart school project and eventually played a significant role in connecting a remote community to the Internet (see Box 2).

Box 2:
e-Bario

The remote district Bario in the Borneo State of Sarawak is located about 400 km Southeast of Miri. It is inhabited by a small farming community of 1,000 people mostly of Kelabit ethnic group. Because of its poor communication infrastructure and the rough and rugged terrain, the district is only acces­sible by air from Miri. It takes a minimum of four to five days to reach Bario from Miri on land and water routes. The district lacks basic amenities such as regular electricity, piped water, and telecommunications infrastructure. Bario remained virtually untouched until a decision was made to introduce the smart school project in the area.

The school children in Bario are disadvantaged both economically and socially and have little or no exposure to the outside world. (Zen et al 2004). It is against this backdrop that a group of researchers from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) conceptualised the e-Bario project seeking to connect the community to the Internet with the ultimate objective of promoting their socio-economic development in a sustainable manner. Supported by the State government of Sarawak, the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, and the National IT Council, the project led to the establishment of two computer labs in local schools (ten personal computers at a primary school and 12 personal computers at the secondary school) and a publicly accessible telecaster with four computers, thus connecting the Bario population to the global information network. Due to a lack of regular electricity supply, diesel generators were used to power the computers at the school.

In the second phase of development of the smart school project, the computers at the schools also formed the community’s telecentres. These are solar-powered and Internet access is provided through a satellite using the solar powered VSAT system. The computer labs have allowed the school children to get access to the Internet and the telecentres have enabled the villagers to communicate and share information with people outside. The initial costs were borne by the project with revenue generated through the telecentres, which in turn has helped sustain the project. eBario serves as an example of innovation in bridging the digital divide, and demonstrates how public and private sectors can work together to improve the lives of marginalised communities. The success of e-Bario has earned it several awards locally and internationally and inspired similar projects elsewhere.30 However, it remains unclear as to how women and girls were included from the Kelabit community in the decision-making and consultation processes for this project.

The Internet Users Survey 2014 conducted by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) identified an increase in the percentage of Internet users across Malaysia. There are 66.6 per cent Internet users against 33.4 per cent of non-users.31 Use distribution among the states appears to be proportionate to population density (MCMC 2014: 14). The ratio of male users against female users of the Internet increased to 1.4 from 1.3, where males accounted for 58.3 per cent of Internet users compared to 41.7 per cent of female users (MCMC 2014: 4 and 13). This ratio is higher than the sex ratio for Malaysia and hence indicates a more prevalent use of the Internet among males in the country over females (MCMC 2014: 13). Although there is a rural-urban divide, the gap between urban and rural use of the Internet is decreasing (MCMC 2014: 19). This indicates an improvement in Internet use in rural areas in the country and a general improvement in Internet penetration rates. This is likely to be further enhanced through the roll-out of the government’s National Broadband Initiatives project which focuses on the development of wireless villages and 1Malaysia Internt Centres in rural areas.

From a connectivity architecture standpoint alone, Malaysia is poised for greater improvements in achieving its vision for e-government. This will no doubt be buoyed by the Malaysian government’s commitment to the use of open source software (OSS). The Malaysian Public Sector OSS Master Plan was launched on July 16, 2004, to create and enhance value using OSS within the Public Sector ICT framework in providing efficient, secure, and quality services. The OSS Master Plan officially entered into Phase II—Accelerated Adoption on June 12, 2007, to accelerate OSS usage throughout the Public Sector, nation-wide. The objectives to implement this initiative are as follows:

  • To reduce the total cost of ownership
  • To increase freedom of choice of software usage
  • To increase interoperability among systems
  • To increase growth of ICT industry
  • To increase growth of OSS industry
  • To increase growth of OSS user and developer community
  • To increase growth of knowledge-based society
  • To reduce digital divide32

MAMPU was tasked to establish and operate the Open Source Competency Centre (OSCC), which is the single point of reference to guide, facilitate, coordinate, and monitor implementation of OSS in the Public Sector.

 


  1. Based on Malaysian Population Census 2010.
  2. Number of households derived by dividing populations by average household size.
  3. For more information on these different community centres, see MCMC 2015a: 9, http://www.mcmc.gov.my/skmmgovmy/media/General/pdf/CM-Q2-2015-BI-(pdf).pdf.
  4. For more information on e-bario, see http://www.unimas.my/ebario and http://www.ebario.org. See also http://mikeb.inta.gatech.edu/UCDandIDWorkshop/papers/yeo.pdf.
  5. The survey adopted the confidence level of 95% and precision of ±5%. As on March 31, 2014, the reference date, there were 144.2 hand phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, a high enough penetration for the subscriber base to be treated as a virtual frame of individuals. The survey reached a sample of 2,402 Internet users and 1,205 non-users. Together they form the sample size of 3,607 (MCMC 2014: 6).
  6. See http://nitc.kkmm.gov.my/index.php/national-ict-policies/malaysia-public-sector-open-source-software-program.