Penang's Free WiFi raises a furore

If ever there is a party dampener, you can rest assured that there is usually one man - or one organisation - behind it. Days ago, this party pooper was up to his same old tricks again: deflating all enthusiasm and initiatives with his dark, fatalistic, fearless/fearful warnings of impending doom, gloom, brimstone and fire.

The man: SM Mohamed Idris. The organisation: Consumers Association of Penang (CAP).

Depending on where you stand regarding the issues brought up by the CAP, it's easy to love or to hate this guy who is the association's president. Authorities and businesses are generally irritated by him not because of what he represents but more because his words carry a lot of weight with the general public.

The general public sees the consumer association as the voice of the little man in the street who is up against the big boys of bureaucracy and industry, money, greed and unscrupulousness. Never mind the issues; it's always about being the first to make noise. When you are the first to make noise and create awareness, people takes notice of it. Never mind whether in the long run you are proven right or wrong. It has already stuck in the people's mind, especially when you are a small fry up against the big boys, that there is someone who dares to tell the big boys that "you are wrong." That's the perception which has been building up through the years that the consumer association is never wrong even though they are not always right.

All consumers associations thrive in this atmosphere of uncertainty. They have become experts at pointing out hidden dangers, whether perceived or real, justified or unjustified, and creating public interest in the process. In a way, it is good but unfortunately, the general public often is unable to verify the claims quoted by the consumer associations because they don't have the resources and neither are they experts in the matter. "Let the consumer association raise it up. After all, it's their job to sound the warnings." That's the attitude.

I'm not writing all these because I'm for or against the CAP. I'm writing this because lately, the association has been in the forefront of making noises about the Free WiFi project in Penang. The association says that the WiFi signals are dangerous to people's health because there are studies that claimed so. The association's resistance to the Free WiFi project has reached such a pitch that the state government has been forced to say it will continue to study the possible health effects of WiFi signals and if it is proven bad for health, the project will be scrapped.

Are the WiFi signals really that dangerous? I don't know. I'm no expert. There you have it. I'm not an expert. Are you? Without being the expert, are you willing to believe all that you hear? Put your total trust in the little guy who dares to tell off the big boys? What are these studies anyway? I've no time to read them even if i can find them. Do you have the time to read them? Or do we take a shortcut and rely on people who claim to have the time to read all of them carefully? Assimilating each and every word, reflecting on each and every claim and statement? Who were these people who made the original claims? When were these claims made, anyway? Did these people qualify their claims with words like "may" or "can"? If they did, do we accept the claims without question? If we do, are we doing ourselves an injustice? Oh, questions, questions, questions....

Interestingly, the chairman of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (Northern Branch), O.K. Lee, came out with a long statement yesterday. It's already being quoted by the local newspapers. Essentially, he was saying:

"We noted that some quarters had expressed some concerns about the health risks caused by the electromagnetic transmission of these WIFI and WIMAX. Our searches revealed many reports for and against this concern and many of them are not scientifically proven. The final conclusion on this health concern may take years or decades to substantiate. Meanwhile we noted that many advanced nations and cities are already enjoying this free or inexpensive service to improve the quality of life for its residents. The current view is that the benefits outweigh the unproven concern.

"In view of the immense advantages of the free broadband service to the State, the industries and individuals, FMM Northern Branch urge the State Authority to proceed with the implementation of these free wireless broadband initiatives soonest. Should there be any proven health risk in the future, there is always preventive and mitigating measures that can be implemented to minimize or avoid such risk. Unproven concerns should not impede or delay the beneficial initiatives from being implemented."

By the way. it wasn't a rebuttal of the Consumers Association of Penang's claims but it gave me food for thought last night: that this health concern is unproven and may take years or decades to substantiate. Yet free WiFi has already been implemented in major cities in many advanced nations. Does this mean then that these advanced nations do not care much about the health of their citizens? Does this also mean that their consumer movement is so much less influential than ours that it has not raised any health concern with their own government? Food for thought, right?

P.S. I was telling my wife that we are already being inundated with WiFi signals for the past several years. Only difference is that mine is Paid Private WiFi instead of Free Public WiFi. I'm connected to the Internet through my router which sends out encrypted WiFi signals. My neighbours around me have their own private WiFi connections to the Internet, some also encrypted and some are not. Our offices are all WiFied. Even shopping centres and fast food joints have free WiFi. So what's the big deal?