Don’t read too much into happiness ranking, say academics

 

Malaysia is ranked 81st out of 149 countries in the World Happiness Report. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Two academics have advised Malaysians against reading too much into the country’s poor showing in recent releases of the World Happiness Report.

Madeline Berma of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak found fault with the indicators used, and Jessica Ong of Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, referring to this year’s report, said it would be unreasonable to expect a high level of happiness with Covid-19 raging.

Malaysia finished at 35th place in 2018, but dropped to 80th in 2019 and 82nd last year. This year, it is placed 81st among the 149 countries surveyed.

The report, sponsored by the United Nations, seeks to measure people’s satisfaction with their lives. It uses indicators from the Gallup World Poll, which span multiple economic, political and social topics such as law and order, personal health and perceived corruption.

Madeline Berma

Berma, a Suhakam commissioner, told FMT such indicators alone would not provide a true measurement of a country’s happiness.

“The index only measures the various indicators, but a country’s true happiness cannot be measured that way,” she said.

“The indicators provide only quantitative measurements, not qualitative. Indicators such as racial unity were not included.”

She said one could look at the report as one would at the performance of students in school. A student placed first in a class was not necessarily the most intelligent.

However, she acknowledged that the report would be of help to the government in planning a holistic approach to development.

Ong told FMT she could not see much for Malaysians to celebrate over the past year.

She noted that there were job losses and salary cuts and said the pandemic caused anxiety, stress and depression.

Jessica Ong

The report noted as much, saying the ninth edition was shaped by the pandemic, which “has shaken, taken and reshaped lives” throughout the world.

“Nobody expected the pandemic, and it’s not easy to adapt to it,” said Ong.

“Students have related to me their stresses about online learning. They have internet problems and they can’t see the lecturers.

“This is just students. What about the elderly, who have not been able to go out as much during the pandemic?” - FMT