Future of Electronic Government in Asia
Introduction
Throughout the twentieth century,
scholars have been proclaiming that technology would transform political,
economic and social environments. Today we come to realize the important of
technology in everyday life. In term of economic and social environments, it is
clear to us how technology of telecommunications and transportation transform
these environments. But in term of government or political environment, we need
more explanation. Some scholars argue that today's information revolution is
ending hierarchical bureaucracies and leading to a new electronic feudalism
with overlapping communities and jurisdictions laying claim to multiple of
citizens' identities and loyalties. This argument is partly right. Why? We must
realize that the state is like an organic entity that has been resilient and
can adjust or transform itself. Before we can go on to discuss the future of
electronic government in Asia, we must keep assumption that the states have
been resilient and continue to command the loyalties of the vast majority of
their people. Without this assumption, it is no use to continue writing this
paper. Without this assumption our topic would be read "the collapse of
the state toward electronic feudalism."
It is commonly said that the present
is conceived in the past and is conceiving the future. In this regard, it means
to us that if we want to know the future of electronic government in Asia
clearly, we first need to understand the general idea of its present. And at
the same time to understand the East or Asia in particular we need to know the
West where information technology was originated.
The theme of this paper is:
"The
development of telecommunications and information revolution caused the Asian
government to transform itself to the new era. The government perceives to the
information revolution differently depending whether it is democratic or
authoritarian government. To catch up with the information revolution there are
governments who decide to choose one type of transformation called electronic
government which is:
1) Domestically aimed to shape
contacts of its society, to alter patterns of political participation and
public deliberation, and serve the public as a whole.
2) Internationally aimed to integrate
itself to global system.
Electronic governments in future are facing
constraints caused by their own political, economic and social environments. In
addition, the development of electronic government will exacerbate the existed
problems of dual structure and eventually will lead to the increasing level of
technology dependence to the West. However, in applying the concept of
electronic government, more transparency and democratic government can be
expected.”
The concept of electronic
government that could be fit to this paper should be
"the
government' s deliberation to introduce two-way hi-tech contacts between public
sector and private sector and to provide its services to the community through
new electronic and telecommunications technology such as internet, aiming that
it can integrate itself to global system and serve the public demand as a
whole."
This paper will be drawn into 4
parts. First is introduction, which explained the assumption and the theme of
this paper. The second part will give some overview of possible features of the
electronic government in general. It will answer the question: what can
electronic government possibly do to the society? The third part is to discuss
the future of electronic government in Asia. This part will answer three
questions: what are the constraints in utilizing electronic government? what
should be the beneficial in exercising electronic government? what can be the
side effects in applying electronic government?
And fourth is conclusion and recommendations to the governments.
Possible features
Theoretically,
we can say that an electronic government will allow public access to government
information and services, and group participation in discussions at any time
and from anywhere on the globe with the required security and trust.
There are a lot of spaces to be
developed for the electronic government or the government information services
such as storing and archiving information, finding and accessing information,
integrating information from multiple sources, mining and knowledge discovery,
universal access to information, validating and visualizing, and security,
privacy and e-commerce. Schorr and Stolfo (1998, p. 17) suggested that these development
topics will enable a whole new range of advanced applications such as
-Crisis
management for natural disasters can be driven by information services that
link, summarize and present critical information on demographics, utility maps
and geospatial data to guide and assist in rapid evacuations and force
deployment, reducing loss of life and property. Concomitantly, collaboration
technologies may bring together the special expertise of remote individuals to
participate in group decision making to jointly solve and manage a live crisis.
-Economic
and statistical data integrated across multiple government agencies to provide
a more accurate near-term view of economic activity and to inform the public of
its government' s activities in health, education, and welfare
-Information
infrastructure for an electronic government will lead to new ways in which
people and government employees can interact, make decisions, share ideas and
collaborate on common problems. It is conceivable that virtual agencies might
develop, bringing together spheres of common interests in multiple agencies
with interested groups of citizens to solve a common problem. Traditional lines
of responsibility among agencies can thus be broken down to accommodate new
interests and special problems more effectively. Policy makers may be able to
easily tap in to the talents and expertise of people from the private sector,
and across agencies in the public sector.
-Intelligent
transportation systems are a distinct possibility. Real-time integration of
information from databases, sensors, and toll point-of-sale terminals might
make it possible to optimize at huge cost savings travel and distribution of
goods.
Constraints,
Future and Hope
In looking
ahead to the future, I find two important constrains to the advancement of
electronic government in Asia.
First, in general the West would say
that democratic government is poised for a shift in manner in which individual
learn and work, conduct their business and entertained and informed, arising from
the innovation technology. While this shift affords unprecedented
opportunities, it also challenges government agencies to dramatically improve
the information services they provide to the public. Federal, state and local
governments are all striving to meet citizens' rising expectations for easy,
fast, secure and accurate interactions (Schorr and Stolfo, p. 15).
We must realize that political
system in Asia is different from the West. Although the word 'democratic' is
wild spread all over the world, in reality the concrete outcome of the
government action to the public is the best way to judge whether the government
is authoritarian or not. It does not mean that countries that perform
democratic activities such as election are not authoritarian. Political science
scholars introduced many kinds of explanation to the political systems. Some
distinguish several levels of political systems from low level of democracy to
high level of democracy (such as authoritarian, authoritarian corporatism,
liberal corporatism, pluralism). Most of the Asian countries apply their
political system more on the side of authoritarian. The difference is more or
less authoritarian, or more or less liberal. Scholars tried to explain the fast
growing economy of some of newly industrialized countries and Southeast Asian
countries by using model of corporatism, discussing that the governments play
an important role in order to develop their economies in compliance with
capitalist world. In term of information revolution, what is the reaction of
these governments? Keohane and Nye (1998, p. 93) observed that if we look at
countries in the world. It is surprisingly true that many democracies are
leaders in information revolution. The reason is that their societies are
familiar with the free exchange of information, and their institutions of
governance are not threatened by it. In contrast, governments such as China's
can still limit their citizens' access to the Internet by controlling service
providers and monitoring the relatively small number of users. Singapore has
thus far been able to reconcile its political controls with an increasing role
for the Internet. But as societies like Singapore reach higher levels of
development where more citizens want fewer restrictions on access to the
Internet, Singapore runs the risk of losing the people who are its key resource
for competing in information economy. Thus Singapore is wrestling with the
dilemma of reshaping its educational creativity that the information economy
will demand while maintaining social controls over the flow of information.
Second,
prophets of a new cyber world often overlook how much the new world overlaps
and rests on the traditional world in which power depends on geographically
based institutions. In 1998, 100 million people use the internet. Even if this
number reach a billion in 2005, as some exports predict, a large portion of the
world' s people will not participate. In addition, three-quarters of the world
's population does not own a telephone, much less a modem and computer (Keohane
and Nye, p. 82). As with steam at the end of the eighteenth century and
electricity at the end of the nineteenth, productivity growth has lagged as
society learned to utilize the new technologies. Although many industries and
firms have undergone rapid structural changes since 1980s, the economic
transformation is far from complete. We are still in the early stages of the
information revolution (Keohane and Nye, p. 83).
Internet started in the United
States and is more wildly used compared to Asia. Erickson (1997) reported that
in the United States, there are personal computers in 40% of all houses,
compared to 21% in Singapore, 15% in Hong Kong, 4% in Malaysia and less than 1%
in China, Indonesia and the Philippines. Not only that the small amount of
users in Asia compared to the West, government regulation also plays a
destructive role amid the world information revolution. China heavily restricts
internet use, it has only 160,000 users. Of 950 million Indians, only 40,000
are online. Until mid-November 1998, India had only one authorized entity,
owned by the state to provide Internet connections. A rough statistical
information mentioned above tells us that concept of electronic government in
Asia is far from reality. How can a government fulfil its objectives in
providing new high information technology service to most of its people who may
not know anything about computer, internet, website, modem, etc?
In spite of surrounding by constrains, I can
see the light at the end of the tunnel if the concept of electronic government
can be carried on. What I see in the future is that the Asian governments will
be more democratic and transparency. The logic to this is that most of Asian
countries lack their savings. Therefore foreign capital is in demand. In term
of foreign investment, it is risky for foreigners to invest fund in a country
where the key decisions are made in an opaque fashion. This means transparency
is becoming a key asset for countries seeking investments. The ability to hoard
information, which once seemed so valuable to authoritarian states, undermines
the credibility and transparency necessary to attract investment on globally
competitive terms. Geographical communities still matter most, but governments
that want rapid development will have to give up some of the barriers to
information flows that protected officials from outside scruting. No longer
will governments that want high levels of development be able to afford the
luxury of keeping their financial and
political situations a secret (Keohane and Nye, p. 93).
However the
light at the end of the tunnel is not always bright. I can see a blur at the
end of the tunnel at the same time. The side effects of the development of
electronic government in Asia are in two folds.
First,
according to the concept of electronic government, electronic government needs
equal society. In reality, there are social differences: between the rich and
the poor, between the young and the old, between the highly educated and fewer
educated, between the urban and rural. With the present of dual structure, it
is impossible for the government to apply the concept of electronic government
equally and effectively. The more the government develops it electronic
government the more severe dual structure occurs. The rich will always first
reach the information. The rich can excess every information they want at
anytime and anywhere, while the poor can not. The rich can respond to the
change more quickly and accurately than the poor. The rich will be richer and
richer while the poor will be poorer and poorer. The young learns to use
computer ant internet and high-tech devise from school while the old hardly
catch up with the young. Some even say technology is invented for the young. To
the old new technology/new devise is too complicated. For example, using a
computer is not the same as opening a TV. Computer requires several steps, not
just only plug in and all done. To install a computer or solfware, it is
something to be educated.
Second, electronic government is
something needed to be invested. For Asia, technology to produce and manage
electronic government hardly comes from within their own countries. It means
products and services concerning with electronic government must be imported .
The more government develop its concept of electronic government, the more
technology dependent it faces. Unless it introduces its long-term strategy in
R&D, the dependence will not be diminished.
We can
conclude here that eventually the Asian governments must apply the concept of
electronic government. By following the advanced countries and the West, most
of Asian countries had transformed themselves from agricultural states to
industrial states. Now it is about time that they tend to again transform
themselves in compliance with information revolution and the changing world.
Most of them are outward looking and we can expect changes from their
governments whenever there are changes in the capitalist world.
The future of electronic government in Asia
can be learnt through business activities. In the world of business,
information technology and electronic business is not new and its future is
very bright. Anderson consulting reported that within the seven electronically
developed countries (Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand,
Taiwan and Korea) are 36 million amid consumers aged 10-29 - a prime group
targeted by companies. There are about 38 million Americans in the same
category. In addition, a recent survey by International Data Corp., a US.
Market research firm, found that 52% of Asian executives consider an internet
strategy very important, compared to 30% in America and 16% in Europe
(Erickson, 1997).
What are these statistics telling us? It tells
us that there is a favorable prospect for the future of electronic government.
In the field of information technology, government sector must pay attention to
private sector, learning from private sector what its tactics in developing its
business through information technology or internet so called
electronic-commerce. Private sector' s experience can be a good lesson for the
government sector to develop its electronic government. It was estimated that
over the next three years Asia' s electronic-commerce market would expand to
$16.5 billion. If the public sector provides its services as in the case of
private sector, we can predict the development of electronic government.
Government officers with economic sense are needed for the future information
revolution.
Political systems
(more or less authoritarian), economic and social structure (the poverty, poor
communications and education system) in most of Asian countries can be the
constraints to the advancement of electronic government. At the same time,
possibility of more transparency and democratic of the governments can be
expected along with the exercising of the electronic government. However, the
severe problems in dual structure and technology dependency can be seen after
the exercise of the concept of electronic government. Importantly, to ensure
the development of electronic government, the dual structure of the society
much be diminished. Finally, to ensure the self-dependency in information
technology, Asian governments must urgently develop R&D and human resources
in accordance with the information revolution.
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