e-Bario and e-Bedian Project Implementation in Malaysia

The Malaysian government inspires the country to become a fully developed nation with an emphasis on knowledge-based economy by the year 2020. Though the government has been pushing aggressively for one household to own one computer and at least an Internet connection, it is difficult to see these desires and plans of the Malaysian government going beyond the borders of urban centres and small towns due to the limited infrastructure and amenities. In Sarawak, it has been noted that there are limited mechanisms to ensure that remote rural populations are able to get the same benefits as their urban counterparts due to its vast undeveloped areas and that the majority of Sarawak’s population live in such areas. Harris (1999) has remarked that even though Sarawak’s rural population was promised a full and equitable share in the benefits of national development, it has great potential to be sidelined in the nation’s quest towards a knowledge society. This situation, if left unchecked, would produce an “unbridgeable” digital gap between the developed urban communities and the technologically impoverished rural communities.