Faris AlNassir ENGL #102 #201759830, Sec #19

In recent years, there has been a passionate argument about whether governments should

become smart by depending on electronics and technology or not. Some people think that it is

necessary for developing countries, whereas others might disagree with this notion. This essay

will address three main reasons why governments should implement smart technologies (i.e.,

to cut cost, to save time and to enhance the methods of communications) and three other

significant reasons why they should abandon the idea of becoming smart (i.e., cybersecurity,

privacy and the loss of jobs). Then it offers the writer's opinion on the matter.

There are three major reasons supporting the concept of developing smart governments. Firstly,

it is economically and financially beneficial for a government to implement smart technologies.

According to a study by the United Nations in 2015: "…… government agencies can save up

to 70 percent by moving services online, thus becoming more economically efficient" (United

Nations, 2015). To elaborate, governments can save a lot of money by shifting from the old-

school methods of services, such as filing papers and printing photos, and converting their

services into online websites that can be accessed everywhere by everyone. Secondly, by

implementing smart technologies time will be saved for both the government and the

individuals. In other words, nowadays most of us use our mobile phones on a daily basis, thus

if the government employed online services we will access these websites or applications using

our phones. Lastly, the technologies used by e-governments facilitate and ease the ways of

communication between the local government agencies and between the national governments

with the citizens. This means that the lack of e-governance will result in taking hours or maybe

days for a concerned citizen message to reach the officials, however, with the utilization of e-

governments that message can be relayed within minutes or seconds. These three reasons that

imply the importance of smart governments are significant and clear. As there are reasons why

governments should implement smart technologies, there are also reasons why they should not.
Faris AlNassir ENGL #102 #201759830, Sec #19

On the other hand, there are three main reasons why the idea of e-governance should be

abandoned. First of all, when an electronic-based government has poor cybersecurity they

would become an easy prey on the eyes of the hackers. According to a report written by Stefan

Barbu, who has a Ph.D. in telecommunications, states: "Massive data breaches have become a

common threat that affects most of us. Hackers apply sophisticated attacks to steal passwords,

to hack into computers or mobile phones" (Barbu, 2016). Moreover, hackers are the top enemy

against cybersecurity as they live by breaching and stealing information. Also, when a country

has poor cybersecurity they will not be able to develop an e-governance system. Second of all,

some corrupt officials in some countries might intrude on the citizen's privacy and steal their

personal information to blackmail them or to threaten them by anything of that sort. Finally, e-

governance method might lead to a massive loss of jobs. In other words, when e-governance is

applied, the country will be in a shifting phase and in that phase jobs will be lost. These three

reasons that suggest abandoning the idea of smart governance are logical and noteworthy.

To conclude, this essay has clearly discussed three vital reasons backing up the idea of smart

governments and three other reasons suggesting forsaking the concept. In my point of view, I

think that the reasons behind supporting e-governance method outweigh the reasons against it

because e-governance is the future and the future cannot be prevented. Therefore, the reasons

against applying e-governance methods are challenges that we must overcome.