The United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Report 2001 has ranked Malaysia 56th out of 162 countries in its Human Development Index (HDI) - below Mexico (51), United Arab Emirates (45) and Singapore (26).

The yearly report released last week measures the overall achievements of a country in three basic dimensions of human development - longevity, knowledge and an acceptable standard of living.

The three factors are measured by life expectancy, educational attainment (adult literacy and combined primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment) and adjusted income per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) in US dollars. The HDI is, however, only a summary, not a comprehensive measure of human development.

Last year, Malaysia ranked 61, after Bulgaria (60), Panama (59), Cuba (56) and Singapore (24). In 1999, Malaysia's HDI also ranked in the 56th position.

For this year, Norway ranked first taking over from Canada which was in the top spot last year.

Asked to comment on the UNDP 2001 HDI, DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang said that Parliament should schedule a special debate on it

He said the media had blacked out reports on Malaysia's HDI ranking and this was 'a clear signal that the Malaysian government "disapproves of the rankings and does not want it to be widely known by Malaysians'.

"Parliament should debate as to why Malaysia's HDI not only trails behind developed countries like Norway, Australia, Canada but is even behind countries like Malta (30), Barbados (31) and Argentina (34)," said Lim.

Technology ranking

He said that, for the first time, the UNDP report has introduced its Technology Achievement Index (TAI), which is a new measure of a country's' ability to participate in the network age.

TAI is also an indicator of a country's technological achievements, including how well it has been participating in creating and using technology, and developing a technological skill base within its population.

"Here, despite all the fanfare about the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and the government's IT plan to leapfrog Malaysia into the information age, Malaysia has not come up well in the TAI ranking, placed 30th out of 72 nations," said Lim.

He said that Parliament will be abdicating its responsibility if it does not focus and conduct a wide-ranging debate on Malaysia's poor showing in the UNDP's HDI and TAI rankings.