By K.T. Maran
Technology is not a neutral tool but a force that reshapes Malaysian society, demanding a critical rethink of our digital future.
HAVE you noticed how we often talk about technology in Malaysia as if it were a big, shiny solution? Faster internet will save us. Smart cities will fix our problems.
We are always chasing the next big thing, trying to catch up or leap ahead. It makes for a good story but lately, are we asking the wrong questions?
There is a philosophy that argues technology is not just a neutral tool we can pick up and put down; it actually changes us. It reshapes our relationships, our values and the way we see one another.
In the Malaysian context, this theory feels less abstract and more like someone holding up a mirror to our daily lives.
Remember when we thought we were in control? Since the dawn of the digital era, we have often treated technology like a magic engine for progress. It is almost always presented as obviously good. But technology is not just about growth; it is also about power. It quietly rewires how we connect, how we learn and how we think.
There is a concept by political theorist Langdon Winner called “reverse adaptation” that helps explain what is happening today. Instead of mastering technology for our own purposes, we often find ourselves reshaping our lives to fit what technology demands.
During Covid, we scrambled to move our children’s education onto global platforms. But did we ever stop to ask what disappeared in that rush? The warmth of a teacher’s presence, the child without a device falling further behind and the foreign values quietly baked into someone else’s software.
Those slick e-government services? They are efficient, sure. But imagine being an elderly person in a kampung, suddenly locked out of something simple because it now sits behind a digital maze.
The gig economy – Grab, Foodpanda – the convenience we love but have we ever truly looked at the humans behind it? Drivers managed by algorithms that care more about speed than dignity.
The myth of “neutral” technology
In a country as beautifully complicated as ours, technology that claims to be neutral often isn’t. More often, it ends up deepening cracks that already exist.
Algorithms trained somewhere else may not understand our slang, our context or the way we speak to one another.
Facial recognition and surveillance raise another question: Who is really being watched? Is privacy becoming something only certain people can afford?
We often talk about social harmony, yet we roll out technology from the top down, rarely asking the communities who will actually have to live with it what they think.
The feeling that we have no choice
Listen to how we talk about technology in policy meetings: “AI is inevitable”, “Digitalise or fall behind.” This kind of language is troubling because it shuts down debate. It makes us feel like passengers rather than drivers.
But what if we stopped treating technology like the weather – something we simply have to endure? What if we asked a more basic question: What do we actually want?
Right now, many of the key decisions are made in ministries and by technical experts. Public consultation can feel like a box to tick after the real choices have already been made. Too often, we import technology packages from abroad instead of building systems that truly fit our own context.
Where do we go from here?
In many ways, the internet in Malaysia is becoming a case study in how things can go wrong. Algorithms designed to keep us glued to our screens often end up amplifying the worst in us – polarisation, outrage and identity politics on overdrive.
Misinformation spreads so quickly that we sometimes struggle to agree on basic facts. And our usual response?
More control, more laws and more crackdowns. Rarely the harder, slower work of building digital literacy or nurturing ethical norms from the ground up.
Maybe we should stop asking, “How fast can we adopt this?” and start asking better questions:
What kind of people are we becoming through our technology?
Whose values are actually coded into these systems – urban elites, global corporations? and
Who gets to imagine our digital future, and who simply has to live with whatever is built?
For Malaysia, this is not about importing another foreign model; it’s about returning to something we already claim to value: Musyawarah – real dialogue, not just procedure. Technology that strengthens our communal bonds, not just our individual profiles. Innovation rooted in local wisdom, not just consumption.
The goal is not just to build a digital Malaysia; it’s to build a “good” Malaysia – one where technology serves us, our humanity, our relationships and our values, rather than the other way around.
Source: the-quiet-power-of-technology-over-us
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