WE LIVE IN the Era of Nation-States. At the moment, there are 193 members in the United Nations (UN). Inevitably, we have to compare them to see what we can learn from each of them and to understand their level of comparability. But how?

It’s like going to the medical clinic to see a doctor. You get your blood pressure taken, your temperature and weight measured, the contents of the blood flowing through you and keeping you alive analysed. A diagnosis is then made by this white-coated medical man. If needed, some medication is prescribed and some advice on how to live your life provided. You thank him, you pay and you leave to come back another day.

You may feel somewhat comforted, or somewhat disquieted by this new knowledge. You may or may not take the medication, you may or may not follow the advice. And you may even get a second opinion if you dislike this new knowledge about your health and lifestyle. In some cases, we may consider alternative medicines for better effect or for more acceptable knowledge about ourselves. After all, you probably know yourself better than the doctor does.

The body is a complicated thing, and no diagnosis, no series of routine tests, can prove satisfactory. There is always room for doubt. Has your ability to self-heal been overlooked? After all, you have always been proud of how well your immune system is. Did you visit the doctor at an inopportune time? After all, you did party somewhat heavily the last two days. And you admittedly ate too much durian the night before. Is that young doctor really qualified? How does he know so much? How much is guesswork? Isn’t he just a medicine salesman after all?

You may decide never to go back to that clinic again. Grandma’s concoctions worked well enough for you when you were young, why not now?

Like our bodies, nations are very complicated things. Nations’ diagnosticians are everywhere, telling them what’s right and what’s wrong. There is always room for doubt about a diagnosis, and there is always room for choice in applying a medication.

But what does a right or wrong diagnosis mean for a country, for a society? What does refusal to take a medication mean for a government?

Unlike the pudding, the proof for the pill does not lie in the eating, unless we are talking about a quick-fix painkiller or some urgent intervention. The proof, otherwise, lies somewhere else, and shows itself only over time. Time series are therefore key in how doctors of nations diagnose their patients.

Data about yourself over time are compared. More tentatively, data about yourself over time are also cogently compared to those of other nations. That way, you know yourself, and you know others, and then you decide what you want to be, or are capable of becoming. You accept some prescriptions and advice, and you accept others. You also make up some of your own, for comfort.

The Modern Science of Country Diagnosis

What do different schools of thought have to say within the Modern Science of Country Diagnosis? Well, the UN leans towards a dualistic diagnosis—either X or Not-X. Developed or Developing Country. This facilitates the prescription as well. If a country is “developing”, then it may be given the medication we call “foreign aid”. Presently, 137 of the 217 countries and regions in the world which it recognises, are categorised as “developing countries/economies”—Malaysia being one of them.

A “developed country” is healthy. Its immune system works, its blood counts are good. More often than not, it subsists in a good neighbourhood.

The World Bank is seemingly more discriminate. The world as pictured in its diagnostic charts is made up of upper-income, middle-income, lower-middle and low-income countries.

Instead of blood tests and temperature measures, nations undergo a study of their economic wealth in the form of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or their Gross National Income (GNI). These may satisfy certain parties, but those who highlight other human values prefer other quantifications such as Human Capital Index (HCI) or Human Development Index (HDI).*

As alternative medicine to mainstream economism, it is the HDI that is of greatest interest. The Human Development Index, developed by the UN, consists of three dimensions, four indicators and three indexes. These are (1) a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth in the Life Expectancy Index; (2) education or knowledge, as measured by mean years of schooling, and expected years of schooling as measured in the Education Index; and (3) a decent standard of living, as measured by GNI per capita in USD, as measured in the GNI Index.

Education: An Anomaly to Watch

Where does Malaysia stand? How healthy are we, how educated are we and how comfortably rich are we?

We place 63rd in the category of “Very High Human Development” for 2022. Third in Southeast Asia at 0.807 (on a scale of 0–1), after Singapore (9th, at 0.949) and Brunei (55th, at 0.823), and above Thailand (66th, at 0.803) and Indonesia (at 112nd, at 0.713).

That’s what the diagnostician says after looking at and ranking 193 countries. According to measurements from 2022, Malaysians can expect to live to 76.3 years old (Singapore 84.1; Brunei 74.6; Thailand 79.7; Indonesia 68.3). Our children are expected to go to school for 12.9 years, and for 10.9 mean years of schooling (Singapore 16.9 and 11.9; Brunei 13.7 and 9.2; Thailand 15.6 and 8.8; Indonesia 14.0 and 8.6). Malaysia’s GNI is at 27,295 (Singapore 88,761; Brunei 59, 246; Thailand 16,887; Indonesia 12,046).

All seem to be what we expect in regional comparisons, except for the nagging fact that the children in all neighbouring countries are expected to go to school for longer periods than Malaysian kids. That is a surprise, and an anomalous symptom that any good diagnostician would advise us to monitor.