IT's democratic 'apocalypse' yet to materialize
By Gumisai Mutume

STOCKHOLM - When Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad sacked and subsequently jailed his deputy and then-heir apparent Anwar Ibrahim in 1998, the Internet provided the public an alternative channel of communication in a country where a vibrant pluralistic press is lacking.

Various websites emerged, giving Anwar's supporters a forum to nurture their views against Mahathir and ordinary Malaysians to speak their mind, away from the baton sticks of the police on the streets. Electronic mail provided discussion forums around the slogan reformasi - demanding a wide range of reforms and a curb in corruption.

While Mahathir's government managed to ride out the storm, Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail went on to contest and win a parliamentary seat the following year. Today the political climate in Malaysia remains relatively tense. Mahathir is expected to step down before the next elections in 2004, while Anwar is serving a 15-year jail sentence for corruption and sodomy, charges that he says are part of a political plot against him.

Malaysia was one in a series of case studies on the Internet's potential impact the Internet on citizens' participation cited by Peter Ferdinand, director of the Center for Studies in Democratization at Warwick University in the United Kingdom. "So far the impact of the Internet upon democratization has been significant but not apocalyptic," says Peter Ferdinand. "In established democracies, it has made it much easier for new entrants to the political system to make their mark." However, Ferdinand says, the Internet is "clearly a significant long-term strategic threat to authoritarian regimes, one they will not be able to counter effectively".

Ferdinand was one among more than 250 policymakers, development planners, information technology specialists and politicians from around the world who have gathered here this week to examine how new information technologies can be used to further democracy.

The "Democracy and the Information Revolution" forum, which ends on Friday, also brings together senior officials of the United Nations, The World Bank and the European Union, the media, non- governmental organizations and academics. It seeks to chart ways of opening political processes, such as elections, to the influences of the information revolution that is seeing an explosion in the use of the Internet, mobile telephones and satellite technology. Some 380 million people are estimated to have access to the Internet worldwide yet more than three-quarters of these people live in industrialized nations.

Still, the Internet has been able to make some headway in developing countries. For instance, the Internet has been part of a human rights campaign that has increased the spotlight on the relationship between China and Tibet. Ferdinand notes that a survey of the Alta Vista Internet database shows that while there were an estimated 39,000 Web pages devoted to Tibetan issues in February 1997, the figure has explode to more than 400,000, many of them opposing China's alleged human rights violations against Tibetans.

"The transparency that IT can bring can truly empower people," notes Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andra Pradesh state in India. "People can be in a better position to hold public officials accountable if they have access to information." Naidu is popularly known in his community as the "laptop" minister because of the portable computer he bandies around wherever he goes and for his pioneering ventures to use information technology (IT) to improve the lives of the 76 million people living in his state.

The government of Andra Pradesh state is hailed as one of the first to begin using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) for dissemination of government information. WAP is a mobile phone technology that allows the exchange of text messages. Naidu has been behind efforts to computerize government offices and schools. He posts land records online, digitalizes citizens' data and believes that the Internet can become "one of the most powerful tools in the hands of an enlightened public".

Yet the euphoria around the ability of IT to fuel the flow of information needs to be tempered with caution, notes Paula Bruening of the US-based Center for Democracy and Technology. "Consideration must be given to the threats to privacy raised when personal records are computerized. The availability of computers and networks may result in instantaneous, unrestricted, worldwide access to digital government records," warns Breuning. "Broader availability may intensify the privacy intrusion."

The ongoing meeting on democracy and the information revolution, hosted by the intergovernmental organization International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), will consider how nations can invest in IT to provide mass access. It will debate the challenges around government regulation and legislative issues arising from the spread of ITs.

"The policy recommendations from the democracy forum will serve to complement and build upon a plan of action to be presented by the DOT Force," said Jimm Lerch, coordinator of the IDEA forum. DOT Force is the Digital Opportunity Task Force created by the Group of 8 heads of state at their summit in Okinawa, Japan in July of last year.

It is made up of teams from government, the private sector and non-profit organizations and seeks to find ways to bridge the digital divide that separates the "haves" in industrialized nations, from the "have-nots" in the rest of the world.

Some of the outcomes of the meeting will be taken to the next G- 8 summit that begins July 20 in Genoa, Italy, for inclusion on a proposed Genoa Plan of Action.