ECONOMIC INDICATORS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN – CENTRIC DEVELOPMENT INDEX

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INTRODUCTION:The Human Development Index (HDI) formulated by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Malaysia Ummah Development Index (MUDI) proposed by Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia, IKIM) are human centric development indices. These indices focus on the development of the human being within the confines of a social structure as the measurement for development of a nation. However, it should be noted that these indices were constructed with a different worldview. Generally, HDI can be characterized as a conventional development index as it was moulded through conventional development matrix worldview, while MUDI can be categorized as an Islamic -based development index since it was moulded through a worldview encompassing Islamic values. Even though HDI and MUDI have integral differences, they do illustrate a similarity in their index as both propose economic indicators as a part of their development indices. This paper analyse the economic indicators involved in both of these indices. In order to fulfill this aim, the discussion will be divided into two main parts: the first part will discuss the worldviews of both conventional and Islamic -based development and then second part will then analyse the economic indicators entailed in both HDI and MUDI.THE WORLDVIEW OF CONVENTIONAL DEVELOPMENT:Observation on literature related to the worldview of development shows that the discussion incorporates debate on theories, school of thought or paradigm as well as develop ment approach. Most writers such as Adelman and Morris (1997), Meier (1984), Crafts (2000), along with Mohd Fauzi Mohd Harun and Ahmad Fauzee Abdullah (2007) states that progression in the worldview of development started around the end of 1940's. Specifically, this progress occurred after the Second World War as an effort to rebuild the war-torn countries.According to Meier (1984) and So (1990), literature and thought related to the worldview of development expanded rapidly in order to be implemented to the Third World countries. It became a crucial operation for the colonial countries to implement their worldviews to the respective colonies as their aims to promote economic growth and political stability of the countries that had just received independence. However, So (1990, p.11) pointed out that the implementation was not merely to develop the Third World countries but also to ensure that these countries will not fell into the communists dominance. In addition, Meier (1984) claims that the efforts by the colonial countries stems from the concern of having lack of sources if the communists dominated the sources of raw materials in Third World countries.Progression on the worldview of development that can be divided into radical and neo -classical development shows the occurrence of competition between the two. This competition is reflected on the efforts made by both parties to present theories from respective worldview. According to Muhammad Syukri Salleh (2003), the neo -classical worldview produced the capitalist development system while the radical worldview encloses Marxist and neo -Marxist ideology thus produced the socialist and communist development system. He adds that the neo -classical worldview generates the modernization paradigm. This paradigm co nsists of theories such as the growth theory and the distribution-with-growth theory. On the other hand, radical worldview produces the structuralism and dependence theories (Muhammad Syukri Salleh, 2003). In contrast, So (1990) as well as Todaro and Smith (2012) are more likely to illustrate that, the theories in the development discipline only has a different approach rather than came from a different worldview. However, these authors did not deny that these theories was put forward by the development leaders who have certain ideological background (So, 1990; Todaro & Smith, 2012)In general, conventional development believes that development itself is a process of modernisation of a country. …