Digital divide: cause of digital divide in Malaysia and ASEAN countries / Husna Sarirah Husin

Digital divide can come in the form of gaps in income, telecommunication infrastructure, race, gender, age and education. This divide is among . those who have the access to Internet and those who cannot, which happens not only among developing and under-developing countries, but also within the country itself. This paper describes the causes of digital divide in Malaysia, and her neighboring ASEAN countries that include Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam. The methodology used is descriptive and correlational methods. Descriptive method will describe the digital divide situation based on previous literature review and case studies. Secondary data are collected from various reliable source such as World Bank and UNESCO. Correlational method using Pearson Product-moment Correlation Coefficient is used to investigate relationship between factors of income, PC ownership, urbanization, telephone subscription and literacy rate to Internet penetration to Malaysia and the other ASEAN countries. Hypothesis testing is performed to determine whether the hypotheses are true. Recommendations and suggestions are tabled to close the digital gap in Malaysia in particular, and other ASEAN countries in general.