malaysia – developing country?

does a developing country have more than half of its states wallowing in poverty?

that’s right, seven states in malaysia – kelantan, terengganu, sabah, sarawak, perlis, kedah and perak – were found out to have a level of poverty more associated with the poorest african countries by the united nations development programme (UNDP) in a dialogue with MPs at the dewan rakyat on malaysia’s progress towards achieving the ‘millennium development goals’.

i am surprised to see perak in the list. i would have thought ipoh is a big city and well developed but i guess maybe if excluding ipoh, many other small towns in perak like slim river, tanjung malim, sg. siput, bidor, they are not as ‘rich’ as ipoh.

kelantan and terengganu i understand as many said since they were under the opposition PAS, PAS has no money to develop the state. sabah and sarawak… well those 2 states since they are not in peninsular malaysia, the gomen, yes did neglect them. kedah and perlis are the two smallest state in malaysia right? i know perlis is… but kedah not sure. i mean is kedah the 2nd smallest after perlis?

well, this so called ‘poverty level’ mainly has to do with the standards of living especially in the field of education and health services.

UNDP resident representative for malaysia, singapore and brunei dr eichard leete said in a presentation to barisan nasional and opposition MPs.:
“the government must target its policies more effectively in these states, as they recorded poverty levels well above five per cent in 2002.”

hear that? don’t concentrate too much on penang and kuala lumpur only. let there be fair distribution!