Social Shaping of Technologies for Community Development - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 210

their aspirations for cultural and political iyuk
and recognition by others. This is reflected in the
words of 80 years-old Balang Radu, who claimed
that e-Bario has enabled further progress ( iyuk )
for those living in Bario by providing the means
to forge connections with the rest of the world.
He stated, 'With these new means of communica-
tions, our lives are made much easier, although
we live isolated in the headwaters of Baram. We
can now liaise with the outside world from our
villages, including talking to our children in Kuala
Lumpur, Kuching and throughout the world. This
is progress ( iyuk ) for us. It has made our life easier
and we are connected to the rest of the world in
a new way. Therefore we are basically very-very
pleased with its arrival. We are now on a par with
the rest of the world.'
Balang Radu's remarks demonstrate that the
new technologies are being incorporated into
the Kelabit ongoing pursuit for mechanisms to
position themselves within wider networks of
interaction that transcend their isolated position
in the Highlands. In this way the Kelabit can
continue to be integrated within (and be part of)
the space of global flow of technologies, skills,
communication and information. As described in
the beginning of this chapter, Kelabit society has
long been connected to the outside world through
their geographic mobility, and the dispersal of
families. In tandem with their experiences, the
Kelabit also see themselves as a part of the wider
world of progress. Just as the cultural practices
of travelling far, and the adoption of school and
church have expanded their horizons, so too the
Kelabits' contemporary acceptance of ICT like
the telephones, the Internet, Very Small Aperture
Terminals (VSATs) and computers in the High-
lands is seen as an extension of their existing
connections to the rest of the world.
This sense of achievement is important for
the Kelabit for the specific reasons I have noted
earlier. They are deeply concerned about their com-
munal doo -ness or status and collective interests
in relation to others, especially within Malaysia's

multiracial setting. As I have suggested, one of
the ways in which the Kelabit are engaging with
this situation is by positioning themselves on the
same level with others in their pursuit of progress
and success. By their capacity to attract new ideas
and technologies into their environment, and their
ability to adopt, incorporate, master and recreate
them, the Kelabit portray themselves as a suc-
cessful and progressive people.
e-Bario in this sense can be perceived as hav-
ing three-fold significance in Bario: it provides
means for iyuk by making it easier to communicate
with diasporic Kelabit; it serves as a strategy for
the image management of Kelabit doo -ness, in
terms of their prestige and social status both lo-
cally and on the larger stage of Malaysia and the
expanding world environment. It is a marker of
Kelabit success. At the same time, it has become
a symbolic compensation and a new resource for
their relative smallness in numbers, political mar-
ginalization within Malaysia's ethnic framework
of development and the geographical isolation of
the Highlands from centres of power.
This dynamics of positioning is revealing
through the ways e-Bario has been integrated
within the local political apparatus to become a
versatile platform for the Kelabit to position and
reposition their interests in relation to the far wider
context of state and national development plans.
The Internet, computers and software are becom-
ing useful tools and means to form networks, to
acquire new skills in the Kelabit Highlands and
to position the Kelabit at the forefront of com-
petition for economic and political resources in
Malaysia.
A local person, whom I shall refer to as
Robert, who returned to Bario on retirement, il-
lustrates this situation. Besides making a living
as a tourist guide, Robert is involved in a number
of organizations at village level: as secretary to
a political party, and as secretary to the develop-
ment bureau of the Council for Village Protection
and Development. In many ways Robert depends
on the computing services provided at the tele-