UN Report: Malaysia 51st "Happiest Country" In The World

By Manik Mehta NEW YORK, April 5 (Bernama) -- If happiness could be measured the way a country’s economic performance is measured in terms of gross national product or gross domestic product, then Malaysia would be the world’s 51st happiest country. This is the conclusion drawn in the United Nations' so-called "World Happiness Report" recently released at its headquarters in New York. The report, which had been commissioned for the UN Conference on Happiness held in New York on Monday was compiled on the basis of survey responses received from 2005 until mid-2011 to "measure the happiness level of 156 countries". In Malaysia’s case, there were a number of factors that led to its 51st ranking. Materialistic prosperity of individuals may have been one thing but wealth, usually an indicator of a person’s material well being, was not the only crucial factor in this determination. There were factors such as a person’s general disposition, the level of contentment with basic aspirations, etc. which were also taken into account. However, Malaysia was ranked 2nd in Southeast Asia, behind Singapore which emerged as the happiest Southeast Asian country. On a worldwide basis, the island was ranked 33rd out of the 156 countries surveyed. Thailand was ranked 52nd, Myanmar landed at 74th position and Indonesia was 83rd. The rich Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Finland and Norway took the top three rankings in the report which suggested that nationals of richer countries tend to be happier despite the fact that wealth was not the defining factor for happiness. "Political freedom, strong social networks and an absence of corruption are together more important than income in explaining well-being differences," the report said. "At the individual level, good mental and physical health, someone to count on, job security and stable families are crucial." The report also is a pointer to different perceptions in different parts of the world. In general, there is a universal feeling that greater attention should be paid to happiness as criteria for government policy. The world's richest nation, the United States, landed at 11th position, with Japan at 44th and communist China at 111th position, trailing behind Iran (84th) and Syria (106th). The "distinction" of being the least happy country in the world went to the West African nation of Togo. Bhutan, which has found a constituency of supporters in the United States where people are becoming "increasingly philosophical", as one diplomat told Bernama, is playing a leading role in the bid to redefine what development means. Recognizing that economic indicators like GNP or worker productivity are imprecise measures of national well-being, Bhutan has applied the new concept of "gross national happiness" in its own budgeting since the 1970s. -- BERNAMA