6/11/22, 9:52 PM Burma: Constructive Engagement in Cyberspace? | Cultural Survival unity and solidarity. The SLORC Says `No' to the Net The SLORC maintains its power not only through military might, but also by controlling access to information. Although the junta recognizes the importance of communications technology for increasing foreign investment and trade, their fear that the people will rise up again has led them to impose severe restrictions on most forms of communication. Newspapers, TV, and local radio are all controlled by the government. Telephones are tapped, mail is opened, and all fax machines must be registered with the government. Access to e-mail and the Internet could bring in uncensored information and the chance to network with pro-democracy activists outside the country. To prevent this, in September 1996, the junta decreed that anyone found in possession of an unregistered fax or modem could be imprisoned for up to 15 years. At the time of writing, the SLORC has not permitted direct Internet service in Burma. There are a few e-mail service providers which call to systems outside the country to upload and download mail once a day, however, only foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international businesses, and selected members of the military regime have access to these servers. The rest of the people of Burma can only read about e-mail and the Internet in local computer magazines. Use of the Internet by Exile Groups Although people inside Burma cannot use the Internet, Burmese in exile have been quick to take advantage of e-mail and the Internet, both to distribute information in a timely fashion and to organize resistance activities. The SLORC has realized that while they can largely control what information comes into Burma, they cannot control what is being said outside the country. Exiles who immigrated to Western countries and Japan in the late 1980s or early 1990s, found themselves immersed in a computer culture. Those who went back to school quickly picked up how to use e-mail from free classes offered at their universities or informal teaching by peers. In Thailand, e-mail access has been available, although quite expensive, since the early 1990s. But because few Thais were using e-mail, particularly in the border areas, members of the exile community were not exposed to the Internet. Even if they had heard of the Internet, they had only vague ideas of what it was all about. When the staff of the Burma Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing international awareness of conditions in Burma, tried to introduce the idea of e-mail and the Internet to ethnic organizations with offices in Thailand, there was little interest at first. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/burma-constructive-engagement-cyberspace 3/10