The Commonwealth of Learning

Opening address: His Royal Highness Pengiran Muda Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah Crown Prince of Brunei Darussalam

OPENING ADDRESS

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

ALHAMDULILLAHI Rabbil 'Aalameen, Wassalatu Wassalamu 'Alaa Asyrafil Mursaleen, Sayyidina Muhammadin, Wa' Alaa Aalihie Wasahbihie Ajma'een, Waba'du.

Your Excellency, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to congratulate the Commonwealth of Learning for initiating such an important conference and to express our thanks for the confidence it has in convening the First Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in Brunei Darussalam. I am personally honoured and delighted to be invited to deliver the Opening Address.

Let me begin by presenting you with two plausible scenarios.

In the first scenario, information technology (or IT) is widely used by all business companies. But most of the so-called successful companies are employing IT specialists who are well known for their expertise in hacking or anti-hacking. The main function of these IT experts is to gain access to the secret files of their competitors. In addition, they also make use of highly sophisticated technology to spy on key people, whether in their workplace or their home.

Understandably, the public educational institutions are fast becoming obsolete, for the programmes and courses that equip students with the knowledge and skills for the illicit use of IT are best provided by private, but unscrupulous, institutions. In these institutions, students are exposed to the most effective and efficient way of using the most advanced technologies. The fees they charge are also quite exorbitant and beyond the reach of many students.

In the second scenario, a crucial summit of world leaders had been convened by the United Nations, following a series of man-made and natural disasters which threaten the total destruction of planet earth. Since there was clear evidence that even the natural disasters were traceable to human factors, the urgency for all countries to co-operate and think as one was recognised by all. Among the ensuing plans of action was a proposed mammoth conference among leading educators and top IT specialists to pool together their resources for the good of the human race.

The present scenario is therefore the outcome of that conference. In this scenario, a very inexpensive netpad was specially developed by pooling the resources of governments and top IT companies. Every person, and hence every student, is provided with a free netpad, which could be used to access information from all over the world, using either a touch screen or voice recognition. The information is, however, appropriately classified, so that, based on the identification of the user according to age, as identified by one's fingerprint, only relevant and useful information could be explored. Students would then be able to proceed at their own pace and interact electronically with practically any other person or group who shares the same interest and are at a similar stage of intellectual development. Formal schooling is therefore no longer necessary. However, students could meet with each other informally for socialisation and sports or with teachers who are academic as well as pedagogical content knowledge experts.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Some of you might think that these scenarios are rather unlikely. But should any of them occur, I'm sure you would agree that the first scenario is preferable to the second one.

More than fourteen hundred years ago, the Prophet Mohammed - (may peace be upon him) - had predicted that knowledge could be abused when he suggested that "We seek refuge in God from useless knowledge." At the same time, he emphasised that "The knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure from which no charity is given."

In 1934, T.S. Eliot probably had a similar idea when he asked: "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?". In the present context of information technology, this is a reminder that we need wisdom in developing knowledge, which, in turn, should not degenerate to mere information,

Hence, with the ready availability of information from cyberspace, we need to be aware that discrete information which is not organised into coherent knowledge is quite useless and, more importantly, that knowledge which is misused or abused is indeed dangerous. Knowledge is misused when it is being used for wrong or wrongful purposes, while it is abused if it is being used to empower those with evil motives or is unavailable to those who are likely to use it for good reasons. Hopefully, we can avoid the first scenario and approximate the second scenario when we think of empowerment through knowledge and technology.

It has become fashionable these days for "empowerment" to be used as a catchword for a variety of situations, ranging from delegation of responsibility, participative management, reduction of organisational hierarchy, materialistic gains for disadvantaged groups or autonomy in teaching and learning. However, without moral or ethical considerations, empowerment per se is questionable. If, for example, empowerment results in personal growth or in greater self-confidence, it is important that this is accompanied by improved ability to relate constructively and caringly to others and to one's environment.

There can be little doubt that knowledge can indeed be empowering, but the moral purpose associated with the use, or mis-use, of knowledge to attain or exert power needs to be examined and re-examined frequently. Empowerment through technology can similarly be a problem if we do not exercise care and wisdom in the way that technology is likely to be used, or misused. In the countdown towards Y2K, or the Year 2000, the possibility of the so-called millennium bug creating havoc in 305 days' time is still anyone's guess. At least, in this situation, unfortunate consequences, if any, were unforseen and not deliberate on the parts of the microchip designers. However, there is no guarantee that unwise decisions, or, worse still, criminal intentions, would not occur in the misapplication of powerful technology.

Recently, Sarah Flannery, a sixteen year-old Irish girl, invented a technology for protecting internet files that is twenty-two times faster than, yet as stable as, any of the existing alternatives. When asked whether she would patent her invention, that could make her very rich, she clearly dismissed the idea and indicated that she would publish her findings so that the world of science could benefit from her contribution . In contrast, we frequently witness the abject exploitation of technology for personal gains and humanity's loss. Thus, those who use their technological skills either to illegally access private files or to develop weapons of mass destruction so as to exert their power are doing a tremendous disservice to mankind.

While technology, especially information technology, appears to be more widely available and we tend to take for granted the improved quality of life that it brings along, the question is whether the situation would have been vastly better if technology giants do not become so powerful that the disadvantaged become further disadvantaged. For example, when technological products are incompatible with each other, only the rich can benefit from the range of available services. Sometimes, the consumer is virtually held to ransom when a particular, widely-used, software is upgraded each year with a new version that is incompatible with the previous versions. While it is true that one can continue to use the old version, but, pretty soon the disadvantage of not being able to interact with files using the newer versions would become evident.

Let me therefore end by making a strong and urgent plea to the major technological corporations to be more responsible and committed to the empowerment of ordinary people and especially the future generation through the wise use of their knowledge and technology. Governments, however well-meaning or well-endowed, cannot go it alone in building a better world, without the active participation of the private sector.

With the kalimah BISMILLAHIR RAHMANIR RAHIM it now gives me great pleasure to declare the First Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning officially open.

His Royal Highness Pengiran Muda Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah
Crown Prince of Brunei Darussalam

BRUNEI, 2 March 1999

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