Digital Divide
Assalamualaikum and good evening everyone,
Last few days ago, we were introduced with the idea
or concept of digital divide. To refresh back what we have learned, digital
divide is a term used to describe the gap or disparity between and within
societies in the use of digital technology. Digital divide is seen as an issue
because it is often being associated with the idea of socio-economic inequality
between and within societies. Most of the societies around the world are
working hard to fight off this issue and this is due to the fact that the
digital technology is recognized as one of the most important components in
human’s life in a way that, according to Kouadio (2007) “They enable many
people to lead more productive and rewarding lives”.
Even in Malaysia, we are facing this issue in fact,
according to Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, digital divide has slowed Malaysia’s
progress to smart nation (The Malay Mail Online, 2014). Since we are gearing up
to be a smart nation, the difference or gap between the urban and rural
communities in terms of usage and the speed of the internet (rural area is
being said have a slower internet connection compared to the urban area) has impeded
the process.
However, the issue that I would like to focus here
is, since Malaysia is a developing country, we still have many other things to
focus on such as electricity connection and adequate infrastructure (health
care centres, schools, etc.) for the rural areas. So instead of focusing too
much on the issue of digital divide, maybe the government should prioritize on the
basic necessities first. What do you think of this matter? Mind sharing your
opinion or idea regarding this issue? That is all from me. Thank you.
A very good day to everyone. Thank to Nadia Anisa for your sharing and question that you posted above.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot deny that, our country, Malaysia still have many thing to do or improve to be better country as a developing country. For instance, health care centre in rural area, paveway, internet connection and etc. From what i have seen in Sarawak, plus i am from rural area somewhere in Serian, where there still has no light along the way to my village. Back to your question about internet connection, there still low speed of internet connection. Plus, we need to pay more to use the internet.
In my opinion, the amount of money that we have to pay is not worth compared to internet speed that we got. I think that it will be better if our government spend some budget for improving internet connection in rural area. This is because there is still villages that has no phone connection. So, it prove that there still has big gap between rural and urban area.
It is undeniable that government have build some facilities to their peoples in rural area such as 'Kampung Tanpa Wayar' programme. However, it not provided to all village but only for some village. So, we can see here that there is still many villagers that not connected to this information technology.
For example is Pan Borneo highway project which cost 16.49 billion to ease peoples especially in Sarawak and Sabah. Jack Wong reported that 16.49 billion cost is only for the phase one project.(The Star, 19 Dec 2016). So, it's shows that government also care of process to reducing gap between urban and rural area.
For basic neccesities, it is very important to take action because peoples need to have basic neccesities such as affordable housing, good health care facillities and also education facilities in school.
Assalamualaikum and good afternoon everyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nadia's opinion regarding the gap between the urban and rural communities in terms of usage and the speed of the internet. About whether the government should focus on basic necessities or the issue of digital divide, I think that both of the issues are important. Government should focus on both of the issues.
I think that the people on the rural area also deserve to be expose to the internet and digital technology like us who are living in the urban area. Many of the children at rural area can expand their knowledge through the digital expsosure. There are many initiatives that the government has done in order to decrease the digital gap. Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has done a few roadshow around the country to find out the places that has low digital access to ensure the people at the place will have the access in the future (Portal Rasmi KKMM, 2015).
In conclusion, the government need to focus on both issues as both of the issues are important. That is all from me. Thank you.
Assalamualaikum.
ReplyDeleteterima kasih Nadia Anisa.
Kita sedia maklum bahawa Malaysia merupakan negara yang sedang membangun, dan perlu penambahbaikan serta tranformasi untuk menuju ke arah negara maju menjelang 2020.
Tetapi untuk menjadi negara maju 2020 banyak lagi yang perlu kerajaan Malaysia membuat perincian supaya isu-isu yang dinyatakan oleh Nadia anisa dapat diberi perhatian dengan lebih mendalam, hal ini kerana jka kita lihat hari ini Malaysia sedng menghadapi kejatuhan nilai wang ringgit sehingga mendatangkan kerisauan kepada rakyat Malaysia.
Tidak dinafikan perlbagai usaha yang dilakukan oleh pihak kerajaan untuk menyekat jurang diantara penduduk yang menetap di bandar dan luar bandar.
salah satunya dengan menyediakan rankaian internet kepada penduduk luar bandar, tetapi tidak secara menyeluruh sehingga keperluan asas tidak diberi penekanan.
Seperti yang dinyatakan oleh saudari rose, penduduk dikawasan pendalaman tidak mendapat kemudahan yang sepatutnya.
Kesimpulanya, untuk menjadi sebuah negara yang maju, bukan hanya melihat kepada kejayaan sesebuah negara atau kekayaan yang terdapat dalam negara tersebut malahan melihat sejauhnya kerajaan yang memimpin memberi perhatian kepada rakyat yang diperintah dengan memberi perhatian kepada permasalahan yang terdapat dalam negara itu sendiri .
Waalaikumsalam and hye to all my friends. Thanks for the good discussion Nadia Anisa.
ReplyDeleteAs we can see digital divide in our country have many difference with other country. For America as example, the things that we can see is sophisticated of technology from internet until their basic necessities such as buildings, schools, colleges, and so on. This is what the American people get in their country for their good life. There is no lack of technology and the digital divide of American are small rather than our country.
For me, our country have big gap between rural area and urban area. The thing that we can see is digital divide from internet side. Not rural area can get benefit from internet exposure. As example, I also from rural area. My area actually has Internet 1 Malaysia. But until now it is not having functional and I also cannot see the benefit from built the Internet 1 Malaysia. But, in other places the Internet 1 Malaysia have functional and it develop the social behavior of people at that place. The pattern that I can see from other rural area is how they are use the Internet in social information pattern. For the examples, how they use Internet to form the social interaction with each other’s. The one things that I can see if the rural area have internet functional, the society will communicate or interaction with each other only using Facebook, Instagram and Whats App. But in rural area that not have internet functional, they will see or face to face with each other to communicate. So, this is the differentiate between digital divide in rural area that I can see.
But, it has different between internet in school and public internet in certain rural area. For the school, internet that provided is limited which means not all social information can access such as “porno”. This kind of accessibility are not eligible to student so they are cannot access with easier. But for public Internet, it not limited as school access. So, digital divide between rural area and rural school also have differences.
That’s all from me.
Hi everyone. First of the first, thank you to Nadia Anisa for this good discussion topic. i absolutely agree that our government today focusing too much on developing our country through digital divide.
Deletethey put so much effort on that development, yet the basic necessity of the people who live in the rural area are still in poor condition. moreover, the social problems among our society today caused by this digital divide development also has become one of the things to be worried about.
in my opinion, Malaysia should be balance in developing and controlling the consequences of the development so that we really become a smart nation like we are dreaming about now.
Wa’alaikumsalam. Hello everyone.
ReplyDeleteSuch an interesting post kak nad. I agree with you that government should fulfill basic necessities of communities in a rural area. Yet, do you know that internet becomes one of the basic necessities nowadays? I read an article that United Nations declare internet a basic human right, you can click this link to read more about it https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/06/united-nations-declares-internet-access-a-basic-human-right/239911/
With internet, people are allowed to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, if the government tends to disconnect any individuals from internet, it will be considered as a violation of human rights and against international law (Jackson, 2012). Nevertheless, education, health care, transportation, and so on needs to be fulfilled as well. I hope one day, there is no gap between rural and urban area in term of internet speed. Everyone in that particular country can get the same access to internet. Besides that, people can be more productive with internet instead of consumptive. Productive here means they can create something or even generate money from it, so internet able to bring more positive impact for them. I think that is all from me. Thank you so much for sharing.
Wa'alaikumussalam.. terima kasih kepada saudari Nadia atas perkongsian yang diberikan.
ReplyDeleteSaya sangat bersetuju dengan kenyataan saudaru Nadia yang mana terdapatnya perbezaan jurang yang sangat besar di antara kawasan luar bandar dengan bandar. Terutamanya kita boleh lihat daripada segi penggunaan dan kelajuan internet antara dua kawasan ini.
Namun, seperti kenyataan saudari sendiri iaitu, kita masih mempunyai banyak perkara lain untuk memberi tumpuan kepada seperti sambungan elektrik dan infrastruktur yang mencukupi (pusat penjagaan kesihatan, sekolah, dan lain-lain) untuk kawasan luar bandar . Jadi, daripada memberi tumpuan terlalu banyak pada isu jurang digital, mungkin kerajaan perlu memberi keutamaan kepada keperluan asas pertama. Benar, kawasan luar bandar sangat kurang daripada segi kemudahan fasilitinya.
Kesimpulannya, tidak sewajarnya kita atau kerajaan mengetepikan masyarakat luar bandar keranan mereka juga adalah rakyat yang menjadi salah satu penyumbang terhadap pembangunan negara.
Good Day Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI agreed with what Nadia said in the posting, that the government should prioritize enhance the basic necessities such us electricity and decent public facilities for the people to access. But talking about technology, it requires a huge amount of money to initiates.
Here is the thing, would you rather wait for the government to sort out the never ending issues of uneven distribution of public facilities, or government took the initiatives to enhance the countries with investing in the current technology invented?
You can’t choose to do both can you? Definitely this question will leads to a never ending discussion I must say.
Above all I think digital divide is another problem that government needs to take care of. By providing the facilities such as 1Malaysia wireless internet in the suburban areas, the government did something to curb with the gap between these urban and rural area but somehow, the maintenance for the facilities perhaps is not carefully being taking care of.
After all, everything that involves technology will definitely took a little time to resolve since the project requires big chunks of money.
That’s all from me, Thank you.
Nurul Atiqah Mohd Azman