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Lemak Lemang

A walk down the Yellow Brick Road of Malaysia's Corridor of the future

by Jeff Ooi, Malaysia

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Two digital warriors ending tour of duty

Mar 30, 2007 10:07

March 31 marks the end of the first quarter in 2007. It's also the day two "digital warriors" from Malaysia shall end their respective tour of duty for Digital Democracy.

Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi shall end his term as the chairman of the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) in ICANN, a position he has held since 2002. Sharil has been the liaison from the GAC to the ICANN Board, and Malaysia's "unofficial" ambassador to global Digital Democracy.

Whereas, Prof (Adjunct) Tony Lee will pass on the baton as the chairman of the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (CMCF). He was the pioneer and first chairman of CMCF, a mandatory setup for industry self-regulation under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, a post he held for the last six years (OK, make that eight if his two years leading the pro-tem committee of CMCF is taken into account).

It is visibly going to be a tough call for Malaysia to find equitable replacements for these two home-bred "digital warriors".

Mohd Sharil Tarmizi
Sharil was reelected for the second and final term as the GAC Chairman in 2005, though his collaboration with ICANN dated back to 2000 in other capacities.

Prior to that, he was the senior advisor in the Office of the Chairman, with the rank of general manager in the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the communications and multimedia industry regulator in Malaysia.

He left MCMC in April 2006 and is now attached to BinaFikir, a strategic and financial advisory firm, to spearhead the company's portfolio in the telecommunications sector. As the GAC chair is a governmental secondment, the Malaysian Government, through MCMC, has appointed him to be a special envoy for Malaysia with full government status, so that continuity in the GAC can be ascertained.

This was done by having Malaysia's Minister of Energy, Water and Communications, Malaysia, appoint him as a commission member in the MCMC, starting May 1, 2006, when he officially left employment in the public sector.

Through my years of contact and working with him on several MCMC initiatives, Shahril is key person who could be associated with the development of regulatory framework for convergence in the communications and multimedia industry. Besides, he advised MCMC on critical issues on 3G mobile systems, broadband initiatives, capacity building programs on bridging the digital divide, anchored on the concept of industry self-regulation.

At the international level, Sharil is Malaysia's liaison with such bodies as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Commonwealth Telecoms Organisation (CTO), the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT), the Pacific Telecoms Council (PTC), the Pacific Islands Telecoms Association (PITA), the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), InfoDev and the World Bank, among others.

Shahril shot me an email from Lisbon earlier this week, where he chaired the GAC for the last time. I was made to understand that during his tenure, the GAC's membership increased to over 110 Governments from about 45 at the time he was appointed.

I took particular interest in GAC's activities and wrote about it in my previous fortnightly column in Malaysian Business, notably the ones related to the issues of Internationalized domain names, which were quite problematic.

One of such problems, and protracted debates, was the the Triple X Top Level Domain and the administration of Country Code Top Level Domains (TLD). It has been the focal issues whenever we met for teh tarik sessions.

Professor (Adjunct) Tony Lee
Lee has been a successful advertising man for all his life as he was also serving as the president of Malaysia's Association of Accredited Advertising Agents (4As) where he led the pro-tem committee of CMCF in 1999.

The position of the CMCF chair was perfectly cut for Lee as Malaysia's de facto cyberlaw, the CMA1998, has a direct jurisdiction over content transmitted digitally through networked facilities. Televisions and radio commercials broadcast over the terresterial and cable channels, the mass form of digital communications, come under its purview. And Lee is a consummate advertising man in an industry that generates over RM4 billion in revenue... see the fit?

On the eve of his stepping down from CMCF, Lee took pride in the fact that his team at CMCF had developed the Content Code, got it gazetted, and ensured that the industry adhered to the code on a voluntary, self-regulatory basis.

Recently, during his final speech at the CMCF annual general assembly last week, Lee cautioned industry players that self-regulation is a double-edged sword.

"On the one hand, it allows individual companies to run ahead, experiment and innovate," he said. "On the other, the absence of government interference leaves the field open to unfair business practices."

He warned that if industry players took the shortcut, abused the system and ignored fairplay, there would be no guarantees the Government would not revert to top-down policymaking.

This observation was particularly pertinent as, of late, it appears the authorities have shown signs of backtracking. One significant example is the Government's plans to impose rules on TV commercials, from banning fast-food ads to banning models with "pan-Asian" looks.

Making the matter worse, there seem to be bureaucrats who are reluctant and unwilling to understand the nature of self-regulation. Lee articulated the issue without mincing his words.

"Now that CMA1998 has been implemented, the Content Code has been registered as a part of the self-regulatory framework, the authorities must allow the forum to decide on these matters pertaining to digital content," he said.

During his tenure, a Complaints Bureau headed by a retired state attorney-general was set up to mediate in industry disputes and rule on alleged breaches of the Content Code.

Soon, a content advisory center will come into play where people--consumers, parents--can give suggestions on matters relating to digitally transmitted content, including TV programs and TV commercials.

I had the pleasure of working with Lee when I was involved in the formulation of the Content Code. Till today, he is very consistent by maintaining that while the concept of self-regulation is a very new thing in this part of the world, it must be noted that technology changes very fast but laws cannot change as quickly.

"So, the only way forward is to self-regulate," Lee said. "There shouldn't be too many 'handcuffs' when we talk about self-regulation," Lee told The Star recently.

In his parting shots, Lee expressed his being dismayed by the lack of knowledge and understanding of the concept of self-regulation among the authorities as well as members of parliament.

That will be quite a plateful for the replacement digital warriors.

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About Jeff Ooi

Jeff Ooi is an Internet and e-Business consultant based in Kuala Lumpur who's spent the last four years blogging internationally on the tech scene, on anything and nothing. Which doesn't really explain why most of his own technology is about three years out of date. He doesn't even own a PDA after his Palm V crashed. He's on 3G, though... Lemak Lemang refers to coconut-flavored sticky rice stuffed in a bamboo container.