ld have cutting-edge communication and facilitate 'electronic government', the later being a touch sinister given Dr Mahathir's propensity to imprison political opponents. Dr Mahathir resigned in 2002 after 20 years in office blaming the failure of the plan on the failure of the Malay community to adapt to an industrialising society and later stating that the education system had failed to deliver as well. In practice, Malaysia had been achieving year-on-year growth of 8% from 1987 up until the currency crisis of 1997, SO blaming the Malay population might have been disingenuous though they may well have had well-founded doubts about the overall aims of the plan. Additionally, the policy was credible only as a result of positive Asian investment sentiment, which proved in the case of Malaysia to be unsustainable at least in the shorter term. The policy did, however, achieve a noticeable if not radical cultural shift that included greater emphasis on electronics engineering education and a gender-neutral approach to engineering recruitment, an example that the UK and other countries could usefully follow. 12.7.2 The UK as an Example Harold Wilson attempted something similar after the 1964 British election. The White Heat of Technology would rescue Britain from industrial decline. The British political process more or less guaranteed that this ambition would be frustrated. Autocracy may have been the missing ingredient here. Forty five years on the question we seem to be asking ourselves is a reworking of the Wilson mantra - will the White Heat of Telecommunications Technology rescue Britain from industrial decline. After all, if Britain can be set on the road to recovery simply by putting in some broadband investment then just think what could happen elsewhere in the world. The answer of course is that investment in broadband connectivity is only part of the solution. There is a parallel need to invest in the education of a new generation of telecommunications engineers and a need to invest in the R and D and manu