Citizens are customers of the govt. : Lee Kwok Cheong

How do you define e-governance? What is its purpose?



The first point about e-governance is that the government should build the
services around the needs of the citizens. The citizens are the customers of the

government. The view is not new in the commercial context where you have to do

everything to service your customers. This is the major mindset change that a

government should bring in. So, e-governance to me is nothing to do with

Internet. It is the change in mindset to accept citizens as customers and then

to align your profit organisation and technology to provide those superior

services to the citizens. Everything else follows.

The other point about e-governance is the pervasive availability of Internet.

It changes the whole landscape. It is now relatively inexpensive. So, once

governments bring in the change in their mindsets that the citizens have to be

served, Internet provides the opportunity to make it happen. Governments can

leverage from investments to make internal systems more efficient. That allows

citizens to use the government services through the Internet and that is a

revolution.

How is e-governance different in the context of a developing country as

against a developed country, where it would be a natural next step ahead in the

roadmap of technological upgradations?



First, the need may be different. Again, it goes back to the principle that the
citizens are the customers of the government. In the developed countries,

traditional government services such as getting license and permit are no longer

important. They are more concerned about participating in the political

decisions of the intellectual fields and electronic communities.

However, in the developing countries such as India, the basic services are

still the most important. Therefore, my suggestion would be that the government

should focus on building these services.

Where does the government begin the work of e-governance in a developing

country, especially because, there are so many basic services that would need

more focus?



I think the citizens are most frustrated. When you go out and speak to the
customers, they will tell you what they need.

Is it also because of a lack of accountability that these services have so

far not been the priority of the government? In the private sector, if you do

not service your customers, you will soon be extinct.



There is competition in the private sector. If I, as a company, do not perform
as well as my competitors, I will be out of business. To me now, customers also

compete. Elections may come every five years. There is competition for

investment. There is competition for talent. In fact, as I am seeing now, in the

world economic development, there is competition for talent. It is the people

who make things happen. If in a particular location, the government service is

terrible and things do not work, the people will go somewhere. It is the

equivalent to a company going bust.

In the context of Singapore's e-governance model, it focuses on citizen. For

improving citizen services, the government first looks into the typical events

of the life of an individual or an organisation. As an individual, the events

could be the time he/she was born, school admission, getting married, look for

jobs, getting house. So the government has packaged different services of

various agencies and put them together as a bundle. For example, there is a

service bundle to facilitate registration for school. You can't imagine how many

people register for school though the Internet. So, the Singapore model for

e-governance focuses on individual and companies.

The other issue is that of getting talent. We feel that we have to compete in

the world market to get more talent from all over the world. Increasingly, for

the intangible thing called quality of life, which is more than e-governance,

people are moving.

There is no quick fix. Singapore has been implementing e-governance since

1981. There still are issues citizens are not happy with. It may not take 20

years now to implement e-governance. But, it will require a number of years. So,

there got to be a long-term plan.

What are the basic infrastructures that should be in place before you

start with implementing e-governance?



The first point is, do not wait for the infrastructure. Do what you can do and
what is feasible with the current infrastructure. To me, long-term telecom

infrastructure is very important. The connection must be perfect. Some of the

government services need high bandwidth connectivity. That really is the most

important infrastructure.

How important has education been in Singapore's programme?



It has always been a part of the e-governance programme. The first phase is to
educate the decision makers. Then the teachers should be educated. There are all

kinds of programmes. Very often the young people educate their elders to use the

government service centres. Some centres also have human assistance too, since

it is not possible to have machines do all the work.

Another aspect of e-governance is to use the intellectual infrastructure to

enhance formal education. Also, in the new Internet economy you become obsolete

if you do not learn. Continuous learning is critical. It is a competitive

advantage. The government should facilitate the use of infrastructure to allow

citizens to learn.

One of the biggest arguments against the adoption of technology,

especially in the government services, has been that it results in loss of job

opportunities. How far is this true?



It has been increasingly seen in all the fast growing economies of the world
that all these new technologies have only created more job opportunities. What

is happening is the shift from one job to another. People cannot continue to so

the job that they have been doing for the last 20 years. If you do not learn and

do new jobs, the economies will not grow and they will lose their jobs anyway.

Does the implementation of e-governance require a lot of capital

investment by the government?



It is one area where a lot of creativity can be exercised. The easy way out is
government spending lot of money. But, I have seen lot of countries getting the

private sector to invest in the process with (the guarantee of) some returns. It

is really the outsourcing model. You can also get some funds from international

agencies.

In an e-governance scenario, new kind of crimes and frauds are reported.

How do you think these can be checked?



Singapore has new laws and regulations to tackle Cyber crimes. Even a child
involved in such crimes is punished in order to send the right message to other

kids. These laws should be effectively implemented. To me, it is no difference

than national defence. The government should provide adequate infrastucture for

necessary security. The change of archaic laws was a part of the whole

evolution.

I would summarise by saying that e-governance is an on-going process, there

is no end to it. It is because the technology continues to change. The needs of

the citizens also change. The laws are always behind the technology and

therefore need continued attention. The challenge is how to maintain its

momentum.