Dedication

Two enduring fields of study for Anthony Reid have been Islam in Southeast Asia — in both historical and contemporary contexts — and the diverse relationships which have long tied Southeast Asia with China. Both aspects found expression in Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, as well as in a range of articles and other contributions to scholarship. It was through Tony's encouragement that I began exploring the nexus of these two phenomena, particularly as they existed in the fourteenth century. The following article expands on an idea which Tony first conceived and expounded upon in our conversations. This small piece is dedicated to a man of rare qualities — a scholar whose breadth of interests and extensive scholarly endeavours have done nothing to diminish a deep compassion and concern for others.

Introduction

Islam came to the polities and societies of Southeast Asia by sea, along the girdle of trade which extended from the Arab and Persian worlds through the ports of South Asia, to Southeast Asia and onwards to the southern extensions of the Chinese world in the East China Sea. Islamic influences extended into Southeast Asia from both ends of this trade route in different periods. In examining such influences, the extension of Islam into Southeast Asia prior to 1500 can be divided into three major stages:

1. The period from the emergence of Islam until the C ōla invasions of Southeast Asia in the eleventh century;

2. The end of the eleventh century until the thirteenth century;

3. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, following the establishment of the first Islamic Southeast Asian polities in the thirteenth century.

The present paper will focus attention on the early part of the third period, specifically the second half of the fourteenth century, in order to demonstrate how key were events of this period in the Islamization of Southeast Asia. There is little doubt that the earliest introduction of Islam to Southeast Asia was by Muslim merchants who travelled along the maritime routes which, for at least a millennium earlier, had connected the two ends of the Eurasian continent. The foundation of the urban centre of Baghd ād in 762 C.E. — with Basra as its outlet to the Arabian Sea — was a major impetus in the transformation of trade and the development of commerce between the Persian Gulf and East Asia.

The kingdom of Ayutthaya (1351–1767) is counted as one of the most successful port-polities in Southeast Asia. Through her twin access both to the Bay of Bengal on the one hand and to the South China Sea on the other, Ayutthaya flourished in the early modern period as one of the most important entrepots of the region. The prosperity of this kingdom greatly depended upon the success of her external trade administered by the king himself, who was known as the “Great Merchant” to the contemporary European observers. Among the variety of bureaucratic machinery which existed, one of the most powerful offices, therefore, was the phrakhlang or the Royal Treasury whose function was to deal with incoming foreigners, diplomats as well as merchants.

Nidhi Eoseewong has noticed that the Ayutthayan kings had two kinds of officials, namely khunnāng fāi pokkhrong or administrative officials and khunnāng fāi phūchamnānkān or officials with special capabilities, the latter being under the direct control of the king. It is to be noted that almost all of the latter groups were non-Siamese immigrants. One example can be seen in the case of Krom Āsā Yīpun or Japanese Volunteers who were, from time to time, mobilized to suppress local rebellions. In this note an example of seafarers from among the khunnāng fāi phūchamnānkān shall be taken up for consideration.

The Siamese are sometimes said to be “aquatic in their disposition.” However, this does not mean that they are good at maritime navigation: the sphere of their activities seems to be limited to freshwater environments such as rivers. Operations at sea seem to have been exclusively in the hands of non-Siamese. Simon de la Loubere writes in his The Kingdom of Siam that “the Officers and Seamen, on whom he confides, are Foreigners.” This is known from the case of royal junk trade which was exclusively managed by the Chinese. Each of the Chinese seamen on board a royal junk was given a sakdinā grade in accordance with their respective roles on board. It started at 400 for a captain of a junk of more than eight metres width down to 25 for minor crew members such as a sweeper.

Our concepts of space and time are highly useful in our daily lives and are, moreover, ingrained in our history. Hence it seems almost impossible for us to understand any phenomenon in our own culture or any other without first defining it by placing and dating it, thereby relating it to other phenomena while at the same time endowing it with its own unique characteristics. This way of thinking goes back far into the past.

The Greeks already had the idea of progression — and history — as well as an autonomous notion of space that was sufficiently developed to allow for both geometry and geography. Subsequently Christianity made an important contribution towards consolidating our idea of linear time by giving a meaning to the life of the individual (through reflecting on its finality) and by tracing the collective adventure of the human race from a starting point at the creation of the world to a conclusion at the Last Judgment. Since the sixteenth century, scientific thought and the ideology of progress have not challenged the primacy of either concept, and while some of Einstein's ideas clearly called them into question, it is obvious that these ideas have been swept along with the encroaching tide of modernity.

We well know — as research has shown — that our Western societies have not always held such definite opinions on this subject. For a long time there were quite complex views about an afterlife, whether in space or time. Where did souls go after death? Whereabouts in space could purgatory be situated? The world was only mapped through a long process of trial and error. Pilgrimages were contemporaneous with voyages of exploration and discovery. Europe too has known the millenarian upheavals that can be seen today in certain countries in the throes of decolonization. Not so long ago in the privacy of our homes makeshift shamans used Ouija boards in their attempts to communicate with the dead, and we know that astrology and numerology still flourish at the very heart of the most developed urban societies. At this point one could simply accept that different conceptual systems can overlap or exist in juxtaposition, but in general we prefer to consider these concepts as ‘residual’ aberrations. In contrast with them, our pure concepts of space and time seem all the more precious and indispensable.

INTRODUCTION: INSIDE THE CLEAN ROOM OF RESEARCH METHODS

The semiconductor industry uses a clean room in which to manufacture silicon chips used in computers. A clean room is purged of dust particles as even a tiny mote can destroy an entire production run. A typical clean room has twelve or less particles per cubic metre, as compared to normal air that has millions of particles in the same amount of space. Those working in clean rooms have to enter through air locks that purge their clothes of particles, and also have to wear space-suit like coveralls to maintain the cleanliness.

Much of ICT4D research is criticised for not having rigorous methods — papers generalise from scanty data, case studies do not have adequate depth, statistical analysis is loose, and analytical generalisations are not convincing. The international community of ICT4D research demands rigour, in the form of tighter controls over data collection, larger and more in-depth data for analysis and the use of well-established methods, in the broad domains of qualitative or of quantitative analysis. Researchers are urged to have clear and precise plans for research, which will include setting up research questions or hypothesis based on an in-depth literature survey of the extant literature, a clearly specified plan for the kind and quantity of data that will be collected, the manner in which the data collection will proceed, and a very precise outline of the analysis method.

Call-for-proposals from granting agencies, proposal writing guidelines from research departments, and how-to books on researchch; all emphasise the above steps for conducting research. Everything has to be spelled out in as much detail as possible, so that reviewers, department committees, international funding agencies, and others can judge the rigour, relevance, and potential value of the proposed research. Even when the research is completed and submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, the reviewers want a detailed and clear exposition of the method planned and followed for the research and data collection.

The Singapore Internet Research Centre (SiRC) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) conceptualised the Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA) programme to improve the social science research skills of emerging Asian scholars in the information and communication technologies for development (ICTD) space. Given the perceived lack of rigour, scholarly representation from the Global South. and the need for inter-disciplinary research, the programme objectives intended to enhance research capacity amongst emerging scholars in Asia by supporting research that was scientific, replicable, generalisable, collaborative, and actionable (i.e. applied research).

Initiated in August 2008, the objectives of SIRCA (see Figure 3.1) were to: (1) Promote high-quality inter-disciplinary social science research in Internet development, e-services, new media use and social impact, and policy for the benefit and advancement of individuals, organisations, nation and society; (2) Support networks and linkages among researchers through a mentorship programme, as well as workshops and conferences to share knowledge and conduct training activities; and (3) Disseminate the research findings through such venues as academic journals, conferences and other relevant online and print media outlets. The programme was conceived by SiRC, based at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and supported by the IDRC. SiRC was deemed a suitable location to incubate the SIRCA programme in, with its experience in conducting broad-based high-quality inter-disciplinary research related to new media and related technologies across Asia, and because of its wide-reaching networks for research collaboration, analysis, and technological development, with industrial, research and educational organisations in Singapore and overseas.

NEW APPROACHES TO CAPACITY BUILDING

SIRCA, a pioneer programme, was built on a three-pronged capacity building approach of providing financial support in terms of research grants, providing relevant research training workshops and exercises, and engaging grant recipients through a one-on-one mentoring arrangement.

If, as some suggest, a messy desk is a sign of a creative mind, perhaps a messy conference room is the sign of a creative collaboration. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time in workshops at the Microsoft Research (MSR) offices in Bangalore, but for some reason, I still remember the way the attendees at the ICRC research methods workshop appropriated the MSR space. They — actually ‘we’, since I was a participant — moved the neat rows of desks and tables around into circles and clusters, spilled out into the offices’ common spaces, and set out to question nearly everything about the practice of “Information and Communication Technologies and Development” (ICTD). Given the broad representation of accomplished scholars, practitioners, and donors at the early planning sessions in Manila and Bangalore, one might have expected that the project which would become SIRCA would be special. But I do think it was a good sign that we moved the chairs.

Another thing I remember from those early meetings was how helpful it was to have people from outside the ICTD community involved in the discussions. Some of the most insightful conversations during the sessions occurred as self-described ICTD researchers compared their articulations of problems, methods, and interests to those attendees interested more in research on the globalizing “information society”. The result was a group dynamic which paid unusually careful attention to assumptions, theoretical stances, and goals. No one was going to get away with a blanket assertion that worldwide access to and use of information and communications was fair, good, or necessary, or that interventions to ‘improve’ access and use were required, effective, or even possible.

A few years later, having now seen the fruition of a full cycle of SIRCA work as represented in this volume, it is extremely gratifying to see how the programme has not only supported fascinating new interdisciplinary research on ICTD and on the information society in emerging Asia, but also strengthened and nurtured a growing group of scholars in the region.

ABSTRACT

Within the Cambodian educational sector, ICT discourse has brought about new challenges and opportunities. The policy response from the government has been aimed at increasing access to education through ICTs, promoting a life-long learning approach to education, and empowering the Cambodian workforce with technical skills required to compete in a knowledge-based economy, whilst higher educational institutions have promoted the access to the Internet for their students. However, empirical knowledge of their use and understanding of the Internet has been largely absent. This chapter reports the findings from a research project intended to examine the extent to which students at selected Cambodian universities utilise the Internet for general and academic purposes by analysing the dynamics that shape Internet use. At the end, we employ Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to evaluate the current conditions of academic Internet use in Cambodian higher education.

BACKGROUND

The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the upheaval of Cambodia's troubled education sector after the country's emergence from years of political instability has been a topic of much intrigue. Although the quality of and access to education has suffered from a lack of trained teachers and inadequate teaching materials (Abdon, Ninomiya and Rabb 2007; UNESCO 2004), by 2010, the net enrolment rate for primary education reached 95% and that for upper secondary level, 16% (MoEYS 2011; ODI 2010). Additionally, the enrolment rate for tertiary education reached 10% in 2009 (World Bank 2011). These developments were made possible because of the political solution in the early 1990s, particularly the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement and the national reconstruction afterward, which lifted Cambodia out of two decades of isolation and opened up foreign developmental interventions. The ICT for development (ICT4D) discourse in Cambodia is linked to these political changes and developmental interventions, noticeably through the initiatives supported by such international organisations as UNESCO, UNICEF, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank (Richardson 2008).

The Singapore Internet Research Centre (SiRC) has championed the cause of ICT for Development (ICTD) research with Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA), a pioneer capacity-building programme that aims to develop the research skills of emerging researchers in the Asia Pacific region. Under SIRCA, a number of experienced scholars served as mentors to principal investigators from all over Asia. Their collaboration has resulted in a range of research findings and lessons learnt which are compiled in this volume. It is divided into three sections, or perspectives: (1) Management Perspectives; (2) Research Perspectives; and (3) Research Outputs.

The first section discusses the inception of the SIRCA programme; opportunities, issues and concerns arising from the implementation, management and evaluation of both the process and the outcomes. The section primarily underscores the need for ICTD research to be more analytical and empirical as opposed to descriptive and anecdotal. It also highlights the importance of rigour and sophistication in ICTD research methodology. The narratives on the management level highlight the relationship of the mentors and PIs, the lessons learnt, and how the programme inspired the PIs to engage in ICT research and practice. The evaluation of the programme describes SIRCA's success in achieving its objectives, as well as recommendations for improvement.

The second section reflects the range of academic traditions represented in the programme through the lens of the research mentors. The section highlights the importance and complexity of key links; that between ICTD theory and praxis, and the links between research, instruction and professional development. However, the practice of ICTD has not yet yielded a straight pathway to theorising either. We often aim to conduct ICTD research inside a “clean room” of research methods — structured, organised, and systematic — yet the reality is one of messy encounters with data gathering and analysis.

INTRODUCTION

The ethics of ICTD research are important and challenging for both emergent and established researchers. The reasons for the importance of research ethics are simple and obvious but still worth enumerating. Basically, research that does not conform to explicit ethical guidelines may be:

1. 1. seen as improper or immoral

2. a. attracting opprobrium and condemnation

3. 2. breaking laws or regulations

4. a. attracting litigation and prosecution

5. 3. unacceptable to the research community

6. a. affecting funding, publication and promotion

This chapter reviews the nature of the challenges facing ICTD researchers seeking to work ethically, firstly from the conventional institutional perspective and then from community perspectives including those of online communities.

ETHICS: THE BACKGROUND

Before we look at ethics in the context of research and of ICTD, we need to review some basic and accepted ideas. According to Farrow (2011, p. 102) ethics is, “developing a systematic understanding of why particular behaviours are (or should be) considered right or wrong.” This sounds simple, clear and obvious. However, “Ethical concepts are slippery and complicated, and for many it's natural to lapse into either a kind of lazy ethical relativism (‘follow your own path’) or to conform to ‘the rules’ or mores as we find them” (2011, p. 103). “Furthermore, the diversity of mobile devices and their contexts of application can make it very difficult to anticipate and make a judgement about ethical issues that might arise. This means that the advice given in general ethical guidance is often vague and non-transferable (2011, p. 104). This is not just a function of the rapidity of technical change — Farrow is specifically talking about mobile technologies but his remarks are true of all ICTs — but also of the rapidity of appropriation by cultures and sub-cultures.

ABSTRACT

The emergence of Web 2.0 gave rise to low-cost, user-centric, interactive new media that promote social networking and make almost anything and anyone with internet access within ‘clicking reach.’ The fast uptake and growing usage of social media — even in countries where internet penetration is relatively low — are an indication of their immense popularity. Their diversified application over the past years, especially in the realm of politics, has been changing the nature of political communication and the landscape in which citizens engage government and public institutions, and in political processes. The undeniable disruptive impact of social media, like blogs, in sharing information, opening communication lines, and gaining more access to both government and citizens, is enough to overwhelm any scepticism that the internet has changed the game and continues to effect irreversible changes in politics and governance. The question is: how can governments put social media into meaningful use? Based on a SIRCA-funded study (Mirandilla-Santos 2011) on the actors behind the Filipino political blogosphere, this thought piece offers some practical insights on how social media, particularly blogs, can be used as a potentially effective governance tool by gaining a critical understanding of the citizens who actually use them. It provides a snapshot of active netizens: who they are, why they access political blogs, how they perceive and participate in politics, and whether and how blogs are used for political participation. This article outlines how blogs and other social media are used in facilitating political information and communication, as well as their potential for deliberation and effecting social change. It will also discuss the catalytic effects of converging blogs with social networking sites, like Facebook, and microblogging site, Twitter, and how they can be used in governance. Finally, this article will examine the potential for an emerging governance approach in the Philippines, wherein most government agencies now use various social media. This new development is both a great opportunity and huge challenge for democratic engagement.

RA TIONALE Strengthening Asian ICTD research capacities goes beyond research and mentoring processes. In Asia as in the rest of the world, large and small scale ICTD undertakings at the regional, national and community levels are being planned, implemented and evaluated by international development assistance institutions, bilateral aid agencies, national and local governments, as well as the private sector. These programmes and projects have built-in research components that require adequately trained ICTD managers and staff.

The SIRCA programme can directly contribute to this need in two ways. Firstly, its research results should add to the content of ICTD instruction. Secondly, its research models should be incorporated into education and training. When linked to curricular content and professional training, the impact of SIRCA may assume a multiplier effect perhaps equal to if not more than the publication of its research findings because of its influence on development policy and practice.

OVERVIEW OF ICTD EDUCATION IN ASIA

The impetus for this chapter came from an observation of the lack of adequately trained ICTD manpower in Asia because of the dearth of quality formal and non-formal training programmes in this area. There may be a glut of information technology (IT) programmes, a respectable number of communication science programmes and quite a few development studies programmes in Asian educational and training institutions. However, programmes that combine IT, communication science and development studies that adequately capture the synergies inherent in their convergence are few and far between.

Information Technology Programmes. Asia's prominence in IT services outsourcing has spawned a wide array of programmes offered by both public and private institutions to supply industry manpower requirements. These programmes include baccalaureate and graduate offerings on information science, information technology, information systems, computer science, computer engineering and software engineering. They cover the entire spectrum of hardware, software, networking and systems management concerns of IT.

The Singapore Internet Research Centre (SiRC) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) conceptualised the Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA) programme to improve the social science research skills of emerging Asian scholars in the information and communication technologies for development (ICTD) space. Given the perceived lack of rigour, scholarly representation from the Global South. and the need for inter-disciplinary research, the programme objectives intended to enhance research capacity amongst emerging scholars in Asia by supporting research that was scientific, replicable, generalisable, collaborative, and actionable (i.e. applied research). Initiated in August 2008, the objectives of SIRCA (see Figure 3.1) were to: (1) Promote high-quality inter-disciplinary social science research in Internet development, e-services, new media use and social impact, and policy for the benefit and advancement of individuals, organisations, nation and society; (2) Support networks and linkages among researchers through a mentorship programme, as well as workshops and conferences to share knowledge and conduct training activities; and (3) Disseminate the research findings through such venues as academic journals, conferences and other relevant online and print media outlets. The programme was conceived by SiRC, based at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and supported by the IDRC. SiRC was deemed a suitable location to incubate the SIRCA programme in, with its experience in conducting broad-based high-quality inter-disciplinary research related to new media and related technologies across Asia, and because of its wide-reaching networks for research collaboration, analysis, and technological development, with industrial, research and educational organisations in Singapore and overseas. New appr oaches to capacity building SIRCA, a pioneer programme, was built on a three-pronged capacity building approach of providing financial support in terms of research grants, providing relevant research training workshops and exercises, and engaging grant recipients through a one-on-one mentoring arrangement.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter elaborates on the theoretic dimension of my engagement with the Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA) Programme.

A distinctive feature of SIRCA is the appointment of mentors along with principal investigators in the research process. When enlisted into the programme as a mentor, amongst the many assumptions that I harboured was that research should lead to theory and that theory should result in further research. After all, should not a research capacity building programme help develop a robust theory building agenda? Should not the programme provide incentives to researchers to construct and validate theory?

In August 2009, I was asked to share my thoughts on these assumptions with the first batch of SIRCA grantees, now considered principal investigators (PIs) of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D or ICTD) phenomena. These assumptions, however, give rise to two issues.

AN ICTD THEORY BUILDING AGENDA?

The first issue deals with the nature of the field. ICTD has originated from, has been borne out of, and has been thriving in practice. For more than half a century, ICTs from the humble rural radio to the most sophisticated knowledge networks have been applied in the service of national development and, more recently, in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), generally without adopting solid theoretical frameworks or foundations. ICTD theory came ex post facto, more of an afterthought to help explain processes and outcomes, rather than ex ante, to be validated by research. It was hardly used as a basis for planning and practice. The dominance of applied research, mostly attendant to project monitoring and evaluation, attests to this. So does the preponderance of ICTD fugitive papers or grey literature produced by international development agencies over scientific articles published in technical journals.