Activists, journalists and opposition groups expected rising Internet access in Malaysia over the past decade to create more room and hunger for political debate, but the promise they saw in 'E-democracy' remains unfulfilled today, analysts say.

More than a decade after Malaysia launched its first licensed Internet Service Provider in 1990, what was assumed to be the Internet's inherent power to enhance the democratic process in a country where dissent is frowned upon, remains a theoretical one.

In reality, the average Malaysian's priorities in life and the government's agenda are still being defined by tangible economic imperatives rather than abstract civic discourse on the Internet, communication experts and independent journalists say.

"In a society where the citizenry is not interested in making themselves heard, when newspapers, radio and television are owned and operated by a member of the governing coalition, and when important public issues are never, as a rule, articulated in public, the coming of the Internet cannot lead to freer and more open critical discussion of public issues,'' said MGG Pillai, civic advocate, journalist and list owner of Sang Kancil at malaysia.net.

"All it (Internet) provides is a forum for the disenchanted, the NGOs, the political parties and, after the Anwar Ibrahim affair (in 1998), the 'reformasi' groups to air their views,'' he added.

Pillai was referring to opposition groups that sprouted after the arrest of former deputy premier Anwar by the government of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as well as attempts to use the Internet as an alternative means of information beyond mainstream media that follow the government line.

''They could not (have a forum) before the Internet, because the mainstream newspapers, radio and television would not give them the time of day. Now they can,'' he explained.