2.2.2. Asia and Pacific Region [ 24 ]

2.2.2.1. Participation and contextual variables

Internet use

While the Asia and Pacific region accounts for 60 % of the world's population, it currently has only about a quarter of the world's Internet users. This relatively low degree of Internet penetration, however, is changing very rapidly as the Internet grows quickly in such large populated countries as China, India and Indonesia (see Appendix 1).

Internet penetration in the Asia and Pacific region varies widely across national boundaries. Over the last three years, South Korea, as one example, has become the world's leading nation for broadband services, with over 5 million users and a penetration of DSL and cable modem service of more than 30% of households . [ 25 ] Australia, too, has been a leading Internet nation since the early 1990s. For its part, Japan has a well-developed wired Internet market, but is also known for mobile Internet usage, with 36.9 million mobile Internet subscribers as of April 2001. [ 26 ]

At the other end of the Internet development scale, countries such as Laos and Vietnam have scarcely any Internet connectivity to speak of. According to the most recent Internet Software Consortium/Network Wizards Internet Domain Survey [ 27 ] Vietnam had just 179 hosts connected to the Internet. Japan, by comparison, had 4,640,863.

Electoral systems and traditions

Broadly speaking, both democracy and open, representative elections have had a relatively short history in the Asia and Pacific region. The actual implementation and interpretation of the concepts of good democracy and fair elections differ according to the historic, societal and political culture and conventions in each region. Societal conventions of making decisions at community level, such as in village group or business organizations or political parties, are deeply rooted to the cultural traditions of many Asian nations. In general, Asians value notions of "groups" and "consensus" more than the concepts of the "individual" and "majority voting system."

In countries such as Australia, on the other hand, democracy is firmly established and well understood. There, suffrage is universal and compulsory for those over the age of 18 years. India, too, boasts a proud parliamentary tradition.

Yet other countries have different views of governance from the ones generally accepted in the West. The Lao People's Democratic Republic and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) are Communist states. China is also a communist state, although it has established universal suffrage in elections for the legislative arm of its government.

South Korea operates a system combining party-list proportional representation with single-member districts. After more than thirty years of military rule, South Koreans - since 1987 - have begun to enjoy democratic political processes.

Taiwan has gradually democratized since 1949, and is now a multi-party democratic regime headed by a popularly-elected President. [ 28 ] It has a complex electoral system that includes a majority of seats elected by direct popular vote, a smaller number of seats allocated to political parties on the basis of nationwide vote totals, and the remainder elected by overseas Chinese and the aboriginal population.

Other Asian governments run the gamut of openness and democracy. In Indonesia, approximately 8% of the legislative branch is appointed by the military. The legislative branch of the Philippines government is a bicameral Senate and House of Representatives. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral Senate and House of Representatives. Until the 2000 elections, the King appointed all representatives to the Senate.

In Japan, democratic principles have become well rooted in the country's political representation and decision-making traditions. Universal suffrage was first introduced in Japan in 1925, but the transition to full representative democracy was marked by the adoption of a new constitution after World War II. The Japanese government operates through a combination of proportional representation and direct election.

Until very recently in Japan, it was both common and reasonably well accepted that companies and trade unions would be heavily involved at all levels of the electoral process. Until the mid-1980s, employers and trade unions regularly instructed their employees and members on how to vote. Such behavior was not regarded as unfair, nor as any form of electoral "capture" unless some violation of specific rules or laws has occurred.

These examples of various representative systems and different ideas about representation and democracy lead to an important conclusion: any region-wide election in the Asia/Australia/Pacific region must have explicit and common rules for how the election is to be conducted.

2.2.2.2. At-Large Membership and Election

The Pre-Election Phase

ICANN's Membership Implementation Task Force (MITF) was basically ineffective in the Asia and Pacific region. However, an independent program of outreach and education was undertaken during 1999 and 2000 through joint efforts by various stakeholders in the Asian Internet community. As part of the program, seminars were held for discussion of ICANN issues, including the At-Large, in Seoul, Bangkok, Taipei, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and other cities. Most National Network Information centers and country code TLD registries currently operate some kind of ICANN education program, and APNIC [ 29 ] conducts regular training programs which include an ICANN introduction session. However, these educational activities tend to be directed at people with a strong technical and/or business interest in the Internet, rather at average Internet users in the region.

By the September 8 deadline, 38,242 Asia and Pacific users had activated their At-Large Memberships. In comparison with the other regions, the Asia and Pacific region had the highest number of activated At-Large members, as well as the highest number of actual voters (well ahead of the next-highest regional turnout, Europe's, with 23,442 members). Of the nations that fall into ICANN's Asia and Pacific category, Japan (38,931) had the most At-Large members, followed by China (33,670), Taiwan (9,193), and Korea (6,439) (see Appendix 2).

The Japan ICANN Forum and chain reaction

On of Japan's earliest At-Large registration campaigns was initiated in February 2000 by the "Internet Governance Study Group" (IGSG), a group originally established to promote popular understanding of ICANN as a whole. The campaign was not initially intended to focus on the At-Large election, but rather to create awareness among the Japanese Internet community over a wide range of ICANN-related issues (the At-Large election being only one). IGSG organized meetings on a bimonthly basis, giving lectures on ICANN-related issues to audiences of around 30 to 50 people, mostly in Tokyo. Later, IGSG organized a number of meetings, three in Tokyo and one in Osaka, to specifically address the At-Large Election.

The second and more significant organizing activity around the At-Large election was the Japan ICANN Forum (JIF). This ad hoc body became the core organizer of the At-Large election campaign in Japan.

At the time of the election, there was a strong fear (and confusion) in some quarters that Japan was in danger of losing the only Board seat then held by a Japanese director - Professor Jun Murai had served on the Board since ICANN's creation. This was perhaps the single biggest reason why the Japanese Internet community, along with the Japanese government and industry, teamed up so vigorously to promote voter participation: the perceived need to place another Japanese on the Board.

Another component of the At-Large Campaign in Japan was JCA-NET [ 30 ], together with the Civil Society Internet Forum. JCA-NET organized their own campaign effort and selected a candidate for member nomination, Ms. Yukika Matsumoto.

In May 2000, ICANN released the first batch data collected from the At-Large registration process, data that included a country-by-country breakdown of recent registrations. These numbers showed Japanese registrations to be quite low, sending an alarming signal to some of those concerned about Japan's future positioning vis-ŕ-vis the Board. This further encouraged the activities surrounding the JIF. Japanese registration numbers were generally comparable to those of the United States and Europe, but there were as many Koreans registered as Japanese. Campaign organizers reacted quickly. The JIF was officially launched on May 18, and it created a Web site to explain what the ICANN At-Large election was, how to register, and how to vote - entirely in Japanese, and with detailed instructions on the registration process. Many of the JIF's member companies, along with participating industry associations, e-mailed their employees to encourage them to register as At-Large members, and (later) instructed them how to vote and for whom.

JIF also attempted to focus Japanese interests by ensuring there would only be a single Japanese candidate on the ballot. Early in the process, there was discussion about more than two Japanese candidates appearing on the ballot; JIF expressed concerns this might dilute the Japanese vote. However this matter was resolved without JIF intervention when the Nomination Committee selected just one Japanese candidate, Masanobu Katoh.

JIF made a special effort to recruit more At-Large members in Japan. However, the most effective channel came from outside the group. Though it is very difficult to analyze exactly where and how the large number of Japanese members came to register, there is sufficient evidence that a banner link on the Yahoo! Japan Web site was a major catalyst for public registration. The banner encouraged people to join the ICANN At-Large Membership, and linked to the JIF Web site. The registration campaign's language choices also proved very effective at appealing to the nationalistic sentiment, claiming that if you do not participate there will be no Japanese representative on the ICANN board and our national interest could be endangered (paraphrased). The Yahoo! banner was extremely successful, perhaps overly so; within a few weeks (even before the deadline for member registration), this direct link banner on Yahoo! Japan's top page was removed.

By early July 2000, it had become clear that Japan was dominating member registration by a massive number. This, in turn, encouraged renewed registration efforts in other countries within Asia, particularly in the People's Republic of China. It is believed that CNNIC started to organize an ICANN At-Large campaign, using their own Web site and some other popular portal sites, including a "lucky draw" where registered ICANN At-Large members could enter a contest to win a free PC. It was clear that the Japanese triggered an over-reaction from China, in an attempt to counter Japan's huge lead. Similar reactions were seen in Taiwan and, to a lesser degree, in Korea.

These massive registration attempts severely overloaded the ICANN membership web servers, almost to the point of breakdown, for much of July. This meant that many people worldwide were unable to register, unfortunately leading to rumors that ICANN had deliberately throttled the servers' capacity and were refusing connections from IP addresses from the Asia and Pacific region.

Under the rules created by the Election Committee, member-nominated candidates had to be "endorsed" by at least twenty of their region's activated members, or 2% of the eligible active members in their region, whichever was higher. Because the thresholds were calculated by region, the large number of registrants from Japan effectively prevented candidates from smaller countries getting on to the ballot through petition. Only one member-nominated candidate, Hongji Li from China, obtained more than the 2% threshold. Professor Kou-Wei Wu from Taiwan thus could not run since the 765 endorsements he received was short by just 3 votes from the target of 768 (out of 38,246 total activated members). [ 31 ]

Nominating members - nationalistic competition

Although China had a large number of registered At-Large members, the activation rate of Chinese registrants was very low. There are two possible explanations for this. One is that China's postal system is not accurate or does not deliver within an acceptable amount of time for registrants to "activate" their membership by the September 8 deadline. The other explanation is that, since the members had registered collectively at certain organizations or groups, the addresses of member records proved to be the same, leading to a reduction in the number of effective members from China.

At the ICANN meeting in Yokohama, Japanese grass-roots movements officially objected to what they regarded as the nationalistic, top-down mobilization led by large corporations and by the Japanese Ministry of Post and Telecommunication. One civil activist group, JCA-Net, a group that had been active in the Internet and telecommunications field, officially presented the argument that this mobilization of At-Large members was in clear violation of the principles of democracy and of Japan's civil society.

As a result of this criticism, during the meeting of the Civil Society for Internet Democracy at Yokohama, a Civil Society Internet Forum (CSIF) was established to watch over the issue of Internet governance. Ever since, CSIF has provided forums for dialogue between At-Large directors and At-Large members, including three meetings. During a CSIF meeting, initiated by Japan's JCA-Net, Korea Internet Forum and Electronic Frontier Australia (among others), it was concluded that the Forum's members would rally support for Ms. Yukika Matsumoto who is one of the leaders of Japan's women's movements and a board member at JCA-Net; as the Asian region's civil society candidate. Ms. Yukika's candidacy was seen by many as a counterbalance to that of Masanobu Katoh, the candidate supported by the Japanese government and by several large corporations.

However, despite grass-roots activism in Japan, Korea, Australia, and others to support Ms. Yukika's candidacy, she failed to reach the minimum 2% of supporters in the Asia-Pacific region.

In China and Taiwan, candidate Johannes Chiang, nominated by the ICANN Nomination Committee, and candidate Lulin Gao, the only member-nominated candidate to surpass the 2% threshold in the Asia-Pacific region, competed for votes. Both earned significant support and obtained second (Gao) and third (Chiang) place in the final election, but both fell significantly short of the level of support displayed for Mr. Katoh.

As nationalistic competition became more acute in the Asia-Pacific region, the global Internet community expressed many concerns, but did not know how to respond. Although several grass-roots movement groups from the Asian region presented the concept of the pan-Asian civil society, and criticized the nationalistic sentiment of nominating civic society candidates, their efforts proved insufficient to counter the nationalistic trend.

After the election, experts from the Asian region predicted that the trends seen in the 2000 election would continue in any future elections. In particular, they predicted that if China were better prepared for a future election, nationalistic competition in the region could get even fiercer, and a situation will evolve in which a few countries make oaths or deals and "cluster" together.

Despite Low Awareness of ICANN

Awareness of ICANN among the Internet population in the region in general appears to be relatively low. During 2000, major Japanese newspapers ran fewer than 90 stories about ICANN. However, as is to be expected in a technically sophisticated country, the Japanese computer press has covered ICANN quite extensively. It can be noted that a certain Œsense of remoteness' may also contribute to the low level of awareness on issues regarding the Internet (and other techno-business domains) because of a perception by many Asian consumers that such discussions are "done in the West."

The Asia and Pacific region community is lightly represented on ICANN's managing structures; this, too, may contribute to a lower awareness of the organization. 3 of 19 ICANN Directors are from the Asia and Pacific region.

The predominant characteristic of the Asia and Pacific At-Large activated members were that they were between 20-39 years of age. The proportion of domain owners to the total membership in the Asia and Pacific region is the lowest among the five regions. The Asia and Pacific At-Large activated members were professionally active in the computer software, the Internet business, and other general business.

Sources Where Asia/Australia/Pacific Region At-Large Members Learned About the Election

The Asia-Pacific region was the only one where "at work" was the most commonly cited place where members had heard of ICANN's At-Large membership. The second most common answer from the region was from "a Web site," which was the most popular answer in only one other region (North America).

The Election Phase and Voters

Masanobu Katoh was elected by an overwhelming majority of 78.4%. Lulin Gao of China earned 9.9% of the vote, and Johannes Chiang earned 5.3%. Compared to the North American region, where the election moved through five automatic runoffs because of intense competition, the election in the Asia and Pacific region was a landslide. What does this mean - that the region with the least public discussion determined its representative with the least trouble? The Asia and Pacific region had the most membership registrations; it appears, because of the member mobilization competition discussed above.

The tables below show that, at all stages of the At-Large election process, the portion of individuals participating from the Asia and Pacific region was the highest of all regions. Table 2 shows the history of verified members from the selected countries in the region and from Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. These four countries had the highest number of members when the first registration figures were released, and they are thus a useful data point against which to view membership growth in our selected Asia and Pacific countries.

Table 1:

Table 2. Total Verified At-Large Membership, Asia and Pacific Region

Table 3: Votes Cast in the Asia and Pacific Region

2.2.2.3. Interim Conclusions and Suggestions

Regional Representation

Some respondents expressed concerns with regard to regional representation. The Asian and Pacific region is composed of numerous countries with very heterogeneous linguistic and cultural backgrounds. One respondent objected to the current structure of the five regions. It may be desirable to modify the division of regions, which seems disproportionately favorable to the United States and Canada, in the next election. That division should be based on forward-looking perspectives that take into account the growth rate of Internet users and the potential size of user populations (see Appendix 1). To reduce the transaction and coordination cost of communicating between countries with different linguistic and cultural characteristics, the division of the regions should be based on cultural proximity as well as the forward-looking method.

The election process and problems encountered

Respondents also cited problems with the registration process. Unfamiliarity with the At-Large election procedure, complicated ballots, pre-registration systems, and the need for membership activation, compounded by technical problems, all seemed to result in relatively low participation. Some respondents stated that the registration process should be more concise and succinct, in order to allow all potential At-Large members to join the At-Large Election.

Some respondents also suggested that the combination of member-nominated candidates and those chosen by the Nominating Committee was not an efficient method of attracting the interest of the general public. It only increased the level of confusion in the public, and inequality in the election. Several respondents argued that there was not adequate representation throughout the nomination process.

Some interviewees additionally suggested that the threshold level of support required for member-nominated candidates to gain access to the ballot should be reduced to something below the current 2% threshold. Others argued that all ICANN directors should be elected, and that election schedules should be transparent and regular.

Linguistic Barriers

Internet users in Asia and Pacific region are constantly confronted with documents that are written only in English. This is one of the two primary barriers hindering users' full participation; the other is confusion with the mechanisms and processes of the election system. English documents can be intimidating to those not yet familiar with the relevant issues, and are doubly so to non-native English speakers irrespective of their baseline understanding. Even if some users do speak some English, the time required to go through the necessary material is so extensive that, by the time a user might feel ready to post something in the candidate forum, the opportunity has passed.

This report suggests ways that linguistic barriers to regional outreach can be lowered.

Should local At-Large Member forums be established in non-English speaking regions of the world, the forum administration committee's responsibilities should include the provision of translation services. This is especially important in the Asia-Pacific region, where citizens of some countries interact with citizens of others only rarely because of language difficulties. In non-English speaking regions, Question & Answer forums should be established in each of the primary local languages. ICANN should assume responsibility for translating the Web sites of At-Large candidates into appropriate major languages.

Many respondents agreed that an outreach program, offered in a "mother tongue" language, is important because it can lower linguistic barriers to regional outreach. Some respondents suggested the following:

• Utilizing DNSO constituencies and commercial ISPs in outreach and awareness programs;
• Translating ICAAN announcements in mother tongue languages;
• Assigning a responsibility of the translation on a ccTLD-related organization;
• Linking the At-Large Membership programs to ccTLD organizations such as KRNIC and JPNIC.

At-Large Membership and Outreach

ICANN is a difficult subject to understand for most Asian Internet users (a fact not restricted to Asians). For example, there are at least 50 abbreviations - including ccTLD, UDRP, GAC and so on - that are frequently used by members of the ICANN community. In a country such as Korea, organizations like KRNIC and the Korea Internet Forum published "ICANN primer" booklets, but these one- or two-page descriptions of ICANN's issues and process often seemed to cause more confusion than they resolved in the general public. In some ways, matters were made worse when the public was told that several ICANN Directors would be elected by the At-Large Membership. Many Members in the Asia-Pacific region were faced with the prospect of being required to participate in a process they did not fully understand.

There are a variety of ways that this situation could be improved. First of all, it is necessary to establish a means for disseminating information about ICANN and about domain name administration in a variety of forms, and to establish a Web site that outlines important issues for discussion on various mailing lists. It may also be necessary to establish a special fund for outreach and education.

Most respondents agreed that future iterations of the At-Large Membership should focus mainly on playing a "watchdog" role. That is, the At-Large Members should stay vigilant against the possibility that Internet governance could be taken over by special interest groups, such as purely commercial interests or the interests of a few nation-states. The At-Large Members also should make sure that the provision of Internet domain resources continues to serve the public interest at the global level.

There is a strong current of feeling in Asia behind providing the At-Large members with a more significant, persistent role in the ICANN process. Some interviewees suggested that concrete devices are necessary to reflect At-Large Members' opinions on the ICANN decision-making process. For instance, the ICANN decision-making process could include a requirement that Board decisions be approved by At-Large members.

Almost all respondents agreed that Internet users' awareness of the At-Large Membership and the issues before it is very low. One of the possible reasons for this lack of awareness is that mainstream media have not shown interests in issues like Internet governance, ICANN, or the At-Large membership.

Several respondents argued that an institutionalization of the At-Large Membership and of future At-Large Elections is needed. Some suggested that it may be necessary to establish a debating infrastructure to encourage participation in the At-Large communities. There is general consensus with reference to establishing credible organizations, which should initiate outreach and awareness programs. However, there have not been any specific measures with regard to building local Internet communities. It is suggested that utilization of media, workshop and events is necessary to promote At-Large Membership and expand At-Large communities.

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