• DIALOGUE WITH TUN MAHATHIR
MORAL LEADERS
NEEDED MORE THAN EVER IN DIGITAL AGE, SAYS TUN DR MAHATHIR
When Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad introduced the Multimedia Super Corridor in 1995, the Internet was still in its infancy, AOL( America Online) was still a“ thing”, and people paid for internet browsers( anyone remembers Netscape?). It’ s doubtful that any leader at the time knew just how the internet would change the world, but what was evident was that the world had indeed changed and was entering a new era, one where information could zip around the world in seconds and where the computing power of a machine in a classroom surpassed that of a 70s mainframe.
The MSC was designed to push Malaysia into this exciting digital age, with a fibre optic backbone allowing businesses to send and receive data in milliseconds, a special economic zone stretching from Sepang to KLCC, and tax breaks to encourage entrepreneurs to set up base in Malaysia.
Has the MSC succeeded?
According to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, it“ has not fully failed”. The fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, under whose tenure it was that the MSC was introduced, was speaking at the PLF-KL Society Dialogue on“ The Nature of Leadership in Our Digital Future” on the 9th of November 2017, and responded to the question posed by a member of the mostly IT-based audience with his
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