Software International's Tan said the MSC needs to score a few success stories in order to raise its credibility.
One investment adviser, who declined to be named, noted that even if the economy was out of the woods, the flaws in the MSC remain.
He pointed out that Malaysia still had a chronic shortage of skilled labor, technical staff and software expertise, and had a high piracy rate.
"Bankers and financial institutions are still overly cautious towards funding technology ventures. They would rather put their money in construction and property development, things they can see and feel, rather than a software startup," he said. He added that such ignorance was a serious stumbling block to the MSC.
"To get to a knowledge-based economy, one must also promote the free exchange of ideas and opinions and openness rather than suspicion and distrust. The accusations hurled at the media and Internet users, and the Anwar incident, did more harm than good," he said.
As late as last month, Mahathir rapped Malaysians for spreading "lies through the Internet".
"This is like a knife, a sharp knife, that we can use to carve beautiful things or to kill people. But those with no brains use it to destroy other people," he was quoted as saying.
Can a government that claims it will not censor the Internet continue to deal with such free flow of information? Only time will tell and the MSC's success depends on it.
Email us your comments.
|
