Our turn: Internet a window to the world

By SIMON COLLINS

The Chia family's flat on the 13th floor of a Housing Development Board block in Singapore is about as big as an average New Zealand family's lounge.

It feels modern and comfortable and the furniture is in good order. The Chias are cheerful and live pretty much like three million others in the Housing Board estates, which house 86 per cent of Singaporeans.

But in Singapore terms, the family are poor. Chia Kim Wah does "odd jobs" repairing sprinkler pipes and the like; his wife Soo Peck Kuan is a waitress.

When the Beng Wan Primary School, which their two children attend, found out that the family could not afford a computer, it referred them to the local community development centre. As a result, they have become one of 30,000 households earning less than $S2000 ($2700) a month that qualify for a second-hand computer with free internet access.

When the Herald visited on March 1, they had had the computer for only two weeks, and that night they couldn't get it to work.

"My nieces and nephews came and taught us how to turn it on and install games," said Ms Soo. But the family had not yet had the training they will get as part of the $S50 they paid for the computer package.

They plan to keep a close eye on their 11-year-old son Chia Chun Kiat and seven-year-old daughter Chia Suet Kay when they use the computer, which has been installed in the children's bedroom.

"When they want to switch it on to use, they can do that, but when they log on to the internet they will have to ask my permission first," said Ms Soo.

Her husband added: "I am aware of the dangers of children surfing the net, so when they are using the net I want to make sure I am there."

The second-hand computer scheme, which uses volunteers to refurbish donated computers for low-income families such as the Chias, is just one element of Singapore's unrivalled commitment to extending the joys of the internet to everyone.

The Government subsidises internet access by $S10 a month for families with children. Since that figure is usually matched by internet service providers, the policy effectively cuts the cost of internet access for families from $S35 to $S15 a month.

The Government is putting $S100 million into a $S400 million project to wire the whole island with a high-speed broadband internet network called Singapore One, with a training centre for the public at the Toa Payoh Public Library.

Computers with internet access and printers have also been installed in every branch library and community centre. A mobile training bus equipped with 11 computers travels around factories, shopping malls and clubs. Up to 2500 retired people and other volunteers have been trained as "e-ambassadors" to help their friends and families use computers.

The National Trades Union Congress, which in Singapore is effectively a branch of the Government, runs a scheme for union members to buy computers by paying $S1 a day for three years.

Every March there is a month of "e-celebrations," including free exhibitions, computer training and an event in which 600 polytechnic students help taxpayers file their tax returns online.

Only in Singapore, perhaps. But the result is that by early this year 48.3 per cent of Singaporean households had internet access - and that seems to include almost all families with school-age children.

At Victoria Junior College, which caters for 16- to 18-year-olds, physics teacher Goh Wee Sen said: "Almost 100 per cent [of students] have internet access at home, but only 30 per cent have broadband."

At Anderson Junior College, all 20 or so students in a group that met the Herald have internet access at home and use it for their homework.

The schools' computers are also available for students to use outside class time between 8 am and 5 pm. But Mr Chia said that was not good for his son. "In school he had to queue up and waste a lot of time," he said.

From their tiny room on the 13th floor, the Chia children now have access way beyond the blocks of identical flats which surround them - to the 420 million people worldwide who have connected to the internet so far. Who knows what that will mean for their future?

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