Could one who understands not technology, use it widely and wisely? Could a society unprepared for technology's reach, embrace it and not fall on its ill-thought out assumptions?

Philosophers since Hellenic times have argued and debated this. Socrates, Plato and philosophers through the ages have come to no conclusion, and it is as alive today as it was 2,300 years ago.

Is technology an art or a science? Science most probably, but its application is surely an art. And since technology becomes part of the culture of the modern world, its setbacks, while not debated widely, hits one in its most mundane form-and with its growing role in culture, is doubly damned.

In Malaysia, technology is official policy forced on to the public domain by a Prime Minister obsessed with it. It is superimposed on a country unprepared for it, prides itself in embracing mediocrity, believes those with poor grades, especially of one race, rates higher than those with brilliant results.

The large number of Malaysian students denied entrance to universities despite their superlative results underscores this political and cultural worldview.

In such circumstances, can Malaysia hope to attract the world's technological and scientific brains to set up research shops in an area larger than Singapore? That it has done is neither here nor there.

As civil servants find out, these brains would not come here if there is no support available, the lower ranking specialists and such necessary workers as lab attendants to give them an incentive to come.

Technologically illiterate

And so it turns out. The success of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and Cyberjaya is based on escalating land prices, not the quality of research done.

Both MSC and Cyberjaya show how a good idea can be destroyed by people who do not understand technology. And technology, Malaysian civil servants, as a class, do not understand.

By technology here, I mean the culture that makes it possible for a system to work. There is no serious thinking about what this large scale introduction of technology into our lives affects how Malaysian society would develop.

The problem the government has with the Internet is one small example how matters can go awry.

Everything new is proudly introduced to Malaysians and the world as the neatest discovery since sliced bread. Anyone who challenges this is deemed an anti-national and worse.

The government has all the answers, and those who question it do not understand what it wants to do. That confusion abounds in official minds about why the world does not rush to the MSC. It believes that once it has a plan, everything else will fall into place.

It is equally wrong to presume that with the MSC, its own ill-thought-out ventures in introducing 'smart' technologies (whatever that phrase means) into the lives of Malaysians would work seamlessly.

Smart ventures

Let us take a few examples of how the government ventured into introducing technology into the public place. Driving licenses, for instance.

Special technology was important, so we were told, with special typefaces that would not be sold in Malaysia, for a foolproof driving licenses. The special cards and machines were ordered. But when you went back to renew the licenses, the machinery for updating it had not arrived.

Today, we have gone back to an ordinary card, the only computerisation involved is how the details are printed.

We had 'smart' cameras, the type in use in the West, to summon motor cars that beat traffic lights. Millions were spent on buying and installing them. Today, none is in use. The running costs were not worked out, the cost was prohibitive and the system is quietly dismantled.

The 'smart' passport is yet another proof, so we are told, of our commitment to technology and modernity. The only problem is, it requires special machines to read them and it is too much to expect foreign countries to have special systems installed to read the passport of the Malaysian who decides to go on holiday there.

The contents are machine-readable, not by human sight. And the Malaysian runs into trouble.

Indian Arabs

It modifies current practices, as we now hear, so that foreign immigration officials think Indian Malaysian are Arabs. This is because some brilliant spark decided that the ' anak lelaki ' (written as A/L, for 'son of') in their names does not have the slash.

Many overseas, without the hindsight of Malaysian practice, think this means the man is an Arab! If the father's name must be included in the passport, why could not that be inserted separately, one which could by widely used for all Malaysians?

The new 'smart' identity card, we are told, would include all one's personal details, driving license and other information that should normally be kept in a safe place.

But the immigration would not accept it because the thumb print is hidden, and it does not have the machine to read it. So, a temporary identity card with the thumb print clearly marked is needed for it.

In the old days, when you commit a traffic offence, you are issued with a summons within months. Today, with computerisation, it is four years. I got a summons the other day for a parking offence in 1997.

Sometimes, in my telephone bills, I am charged for calls I made a year or two earlier. Talking to them is no use. The clerks at the counter are as clueless as I am about it. The hassle you go through is enough for you to pay and shut up.

Inconvenient technology

So, we come to the question: What is the point of all this if at the end of the day ? It is the public that is put to great inconvenience. One should not run ahead with technology that people cannot comprehend or come to terms with. But this is how Malaysia moves smartly into computerisation.

Fundamental questions are not addressed. Computerisation in Malaysia begins with the personal computer, which replaces the typewriter, and the data processing machine.

Some specialised equipment is brought in for the specialists in every field, but they are used by an indifferent workforce not knowing what they are for. It is work by rote, with no understanding why it is done.

Those who complain about it when it shortchanges are told, by rote, the computer does not lie.

No single body in Malaysia looks into this march into 'smart' technology. Each ministry and department has its own computer system, usually at odds with every other. Each guards its own turf.

So, exchanging data and information is out, except in the old fashioned way - by courier, post, telephone. Sometimes, even the e-mail is used. So, one is not surprised when it does not work. One, indeed, expects it not to.

So, the horror stories of Malaysians traveling overseas, and of difficulties in using the new 'smart' identity card to obtain a new 'smart' passport, would come in droves.

When Malaysia believes that meritocracy is a dangerous anti-national belief, and forces Malaysians to depart elsewhere for their bread and butter, it is Malaysia which loses.

Mediocrity cult

Recently, the head of the Hong Kong monetary system was in town for a talk. Nothing unusual about it. Except that the man was once a high ranking official in Bank Negara Malaysia, went to the World Bank, when the 'glass ceiling' hit him as it does any who are not mediocre, and is now in Hongkong. He is not the only one.

Necessarily, the cult of mediocrity Malaysia espouses is inimical to an intelligent use of technology. It is not enough for technologically savvy heads of department. That must seep through the system to the office boy.

If it does not, then all we do is to pay lip service-and pay heavily for it. Look at Bangalore. There is no fancy MSC there, but hundreds of thousands of computer specialists work there, with the world beating to its door.

It is people, not the technological parks, that eventually would turn the tide. Do we have them? No.