Varun Jain

Summary

Date: 4/11/07

Dotcom for Dictators

The internet has for a long time been an alluring subject for all democratic regimes. The senior officials of these regimes are eyeing global competition and thus many authoritarian regimes are also choosing to go for the Internet. The significant purposes that the Internet is able to serve for them are to increase transparency, reduce corruption, and make government more responsive to its citizens. The internet is also helping many governments like China, to consolidate central authority with remote provinces, which in turn makes the communication more efficient.

But apart from all these alluring factors there are reasons for fear among the officials of these regimes. The most important one is that controlling the Internet is almost impossible. Most of the leaders are suspicious of the web. They feel that public Internet access could expose the population to forbidden information & images and would help in galvanizing grass-root opposition. Leaders also fear that the growing number of Internet users can challenge an oppressive government. To sum up it seems as if the Internet ineluctably thwarts authoritarian regimes.

The fear of leaders results in limited access of the Internet for the public. Governments use sophisticated censorship schemes. All the websites that the government considers political have to be registered. The government encourages private companies to filter content and to police users. The result of all this is that only government approved Internet is available in these countries. Apart from this, years of ideological conditioning and the threat of punitive action, prevents user from crossing the boundary.

But still all these facts seemingly mean a lot less compared with the pros of the Internet. Apart from the benefits written above, the Internet also helps to transform authoritarianism’s modern expression. An initiative of E-government by a semi-authoritarian state, Singapore, has been widely imitated by many authoritarian regimes. Benefits of E-government initiatives are-

Singapore, being the best example of an E-government initiative, has developed an e-Citizen program which integrates services from several government departments and packages them in a user friendly way. This program aids the online interaction of the public to government officials. Apart from this, visitors can file a notice for marriage, find about pre and post marriage counseling programs, and obtain a list of hospitals providing genetic counseling. Egypt is among one of the authoritarian states, which has partially accepted the E-government program. This initiative was announced in 2001. They have found a politically significant use of the Internet. They have computerized regional governments and have connected them through a national network. Egypt now has a central government website and 500 other government entities online.

China is another country, which does not want to be left behind in this race. China is already developing an E-government plan. Chinese ministers are partnering with private companies to eliminate corruption. They are trying to avoid middlemen by online procurement auctions. Chinese municipal websites now receive direct feedback from the public. The government has also created a domestic Internet for domestic consumption.

To conclude it is clear that the Internet is forcing autocrats to reassess, adapt, and make critical changes. They are using the Internet to promote larger development goals, For example, All China Women’s Federation (ACWF) helps rural women get health information online, and Egypt is promoting rural education via the internet, etc. Thus it would not be wrong to say that to return to a culture of bureaucratic secrecy, unscrupulous abuse of power and unaccountability seems difficult.

Reference

Shanthi Kalathil, Dotcom for Dictators, Computers in Society, March / April 2003