Is IT the Panacea? A contrarian view by Isa Daudpota

["Irfan Khan" <khania@super.net.pk>]

[This article appeared in the special supplement of The News 
International on 11 Feb, 2001.]   




Is IT the Panacea?

By Q. Isa Daudpota
<daudpota@ibadat.edu.pk>


BLURB: Information Technology is being touted as the end-all and be-
all solution to all of Pakistan's problems. It may offer a ray of 
hope, but for it to have any effect on the real issues of the 
country, a radical rethinking of our priorities is in order.  

EXTRACT: "If there is one important lesson to be learnt from the 
previous human resource development plan, it is that most high-end 
technologists in areas such as computer science will leave for better 
opportunities in the West. Of the 200-plus Ph.D. trainees that were 
supported for computer science training over the last decade, less 
than 10 remain here."  

PHOTO: Room full of Pakistanis working on computers



The country is currently abuzz with news about information technology 
'happenings' and programs. This has generated considerable excitement 
among people who now imagine the country finally on its way to catch 
up with the world. For them, the IT revolution - as it has come to be 
called - represents a way to develop the knowledge and human resource 
base and a quick route to generating foreign exchange. In fact, that 
is the very philosophy of the IT game: to generate jobs and revenue 
and to propel us into the new global economy. Undoubtedly, in general 
IT does offer a wonderful opportunity, since capital costs for 
getting the ball rolling are very small compared to other areas of 
technology. And it is also true that there is a large global demand 
for its products. But does development in the IT sector directly 
tackle the pressing problems that our country faces? I believe it 
could but, for that to happen, there would have to be a radical 
rethink of national priorities. And this would require our education, 
science and technology and IT policies to directly address the acute 
problems that the majority of people face.  

Technology is fascinating in its own right, but where large amounts 
of public money are involved for its introduction, a serious 
assessment of our real needs is essential. In addition, a candid 
analysis of the advantages and downsides to its introduction, coupled 
with knowledge of the society's absorptive and management capacity, 
is required. Only then can IT - or for that matter any new technology 
- be introduced successfully.  

Inherent in the complex nature of this enterprise is the fact that 
such an analysis may miss out some important elements. But it is in 
the process of mulling over the issues that a clearer picture will 
emerge which would help in the process of introduction and 
assimilation of this technology. In our country, we seem to be 
forever rushing forward without carefully thinking through many of 
the critical issues, or fully recognizing the global game plan which 
may not necessarily work to our advantage.  

It is superficially agreed by all, if not deeply appreciated by those 
in power, that the foremost problem facing Pakistan today is the 
general level of education. Without widespread access to the basic 
right of education at the primary and secondary levels, particularly 
for girls, we cannot make significant and lasting progress. Coupled 
with this is the need for teachers ' training, adult education and 
the use of the ever-pervasive electronic media for transforming 
minds.  

The second thing to understand is that educational facilities need to 
reach villages and small towns - where more than 80 percent of our 
population lives - and particularly the poor. Thirdly, we need to 
realize that our resources are limited. Their use should be strictly 
and continually monitored to assess tangible and intangible outputs. 
Lastly, since one is dealing with a very large system with several 
unknown factors, it is best to tread carefully, doing small scale 
experiments to test our theories, learning lessons, and then scaling 
up.  

Unfortunately, the IT policy - like much of our developmental 
thinking - relies on attacking problems at the 'top end', hoping that 
benefits that accrue will trickle-down to the lower levels, such as 
villages and small towns. For example, the IT Action Projects 
Portfolio allocates only Rs. 70 million for 2000-2003 for community 
internet centers in the rural areas, out of a total outlay of Rs. 
10.9 billion to all IT projects.  

There are Rs. 150 million allocated for low cost PCs for schools, and 
some of them may find their way into rural and small town schools but 
this seems unlikely. Almost all the other expense items will benefit 
urbanites, white-collar IT workers and high-end technologists.  

The current IT plan focuses on the training of people. If there is 
one important lesson to be learnt from the previous human resource 
development plan, it is that most high-end technologists in areas 
such as computer science will leave for better opportunities in the 
West. Of the 200-plus Ph.D. trainees that were supported for computer 
science training over the last decade, less than 10 remain here. Even 
when adequate compensation is provided to new trainees to stay put, 
they demand extremely high salaries which are not sustainable. This 
is because other workers, who are capable of doing equally valuable 
work in other areas of science and technology, get much less.  

The lesson is clear: one needs to define training areas where there 
are Pakistan-specific needs and to put money into training people 
primarily in these subject areas. This would automatically reduce the 
brain-drain that results from a training program that is geared to 
the needs of other countries.  

The current euphoria of our IT workers finding places in Germany is 
laughable. This may show that some of our training may be good enough 
for external markets. But if the minds produced are of no value to 
us, what good is it? Expatriates can help the home country 
indirectly, but we should aim to design policies which primarily 
encourage creative individuals to stay here and solve our problems 
first.  

In the same vein, the IT university project has Rs. 1.5 billion 
allocated to it. There are no projections that I am aware of about 
how the graduates that come out of there will find a place in 
Pakistan's economy. Are we again using our funds to prepare our youth 
mainly for the outside world?  

There is also great interest in electronic commerce, which is 
promised to increase internal and external trade, something we are 
told is a good thing. If one is to go by how 'e-commerce' has 
developed in the West, the main thing that has resulted from it is 
consumerism, with increasing emphasis on global greed. It is unclear 
how our experience will be any different. It seems likely to lead to 
our elite spending even more money on luxury items from here, there 
and everywhere.  

With government departments in a chaotic state, is there any hope of 
'e-governance' helping out? Information technology may be wonderful 
but it cannot perform miracles. Surely a rectification of the "manual 
mess" is called for before (or at least concurrently with) 
introducing IT into government departments. But the previous 
government was and the present government is unwilling to do so, as 
can be witnessed by their reluctance to improve efficiency, recognize 
and reward talent, and downsize themselves.  

Reducing the public sector workforce should be regarded as an 
excellent opportunity for creating training facilities in the public 
and private sectors for those being laid off. This would allow them 
to retrain for jobs in IT and other areas. Yet no thought has been 
given to any of this.  

Much of the current IT policy overlooks the critical issues of 
inequity in our society. With so much money and hopes invested in it, 
there is a need to direct it so that it serves the needs of people 
unlike myself - those who presently cannot type an article on a word 
processor and email it to the newspaper for publication.  

It would be great if both my needs and that of the majority could be 
met but, as the policy stands at present, this will not happen.  




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