Yeah it's supposed to have a backlight. The original stereo that came in my car had one, however the LED's had worn out over the years so it was near impossible to see the display in the daylight and impossible at night regardless of the backlight being on.
I have since replaced it twice, first one was with a free CD player that I got off my cousin, this one scratched every cd that I put into it, however it was better than the original. I now have a new Pioneer head unit..
In all seriousness, do yourself a massive favour and put in an aftermarket sound system, it's well worth the money and isn't hard to do yourself (excepting mine had rivets in the harness which i drilled out

) if you are mechanically minded.