The fifth World Happiness Report 2017 was released on March 20 by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Malaysia was placed 42nd in the World Happiness Index out of a total of 155 countries.

This is not a good ranking and we could have fared much better, with some adjustments to our policies.

The director of SDSN is Professor Jeffrey Sachs, who is the head of the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development that is financed by a US$10 million grant by the not-for-profit Jeffrey Cheah Foundation and housed at the Sunway University in Malaysia.

Sachs has recommended all nations to follow the United Arab Emirates example, to appoint a Minister of Happiness.

Now, with our low ranking, will it help us? Do we need a Minister of Happiness?

Since happiness is what we all seek in life, then why not give it the higher priority that it deserves, especially when it comes to formulating our policies and practices to improve our wellbeing and quality of life, all in the pursuit of happiness.

What is the use of pursuing economic growth per se, if the majority of our people are not happy enough?

Of course, we can appoint the prime minister as our new Minister of Happiness as well. But we need more comprehensive and focused policies which are properly implemented to ensure that the poor rakyat are happier and it is not mainly the rich and powerful who end up happier in the process.

Hence, I would agree that Malaysia should appoint a Minister of Happiness.

To start with, and to explore all possibilities, we can have a new Minister of National Unity and Happiness. Then we can develop the art of providing happiness and graduate to a full Ministry of Happiness when we are more prepared.

In the meantime, the Ministry of National Unity and the Economic Planning Unit (under the finance ministry), could establish a Happiness Monitoring Centre, to oversee the introduction and implementation of pro-happiness policies and measures nationwide.

Ministries that promote measures that cause public unhappiness could be penalised by cutting their budget allocation. After all, why do we want to use taxpayers money to perpetuate unhappiness.

Six happiness factors

Happiness is caused by six factors according to Sachs, and they are as follows:

• income per capita
• healthy life expectancy
• freedoms
• generosity
• social support, and
• absence of corruption.

We can understand why we scored poorly in the Happiness Index based on the above.

1. For instance, our incomes are low and with inflation rising and wages being slow to rise, with low productivity, happiness has declined all round. Here the education system must be revamped to churn out more high-skilled graduates who have been scoring poorly on the education quality indices, like the international ratings by Pisa and QS.
2. Our health life expectancy has improved considerably and is not a serious drawback.
3. Our fundamental freedom could have brought us down and this crucial matter should be carefully studied by our government agencies. Our press freedom, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, human rights, etc would have given us low scores.
4. Generosity would have been reasonably high with our protective policies, BR1M and rising safety nets.
5. Similarly, our stage of development in social support would have been fair, with better health facilities, minimum wages, etc.
6. Corruption however, and its worsening situation, could have pulled us down on the Happiness Index. Unless we take more drastic action to arrest the rising corruption according to the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index – we will become more unhappy as a nation and people.

How can Malaysia be happier?

We need to take the UN sponsored Happiness Index more seriously.

We could compare and relate our own Malaysian Wellbeing Index to the UN Happiness Report Index for compatibility and enhancement of both Happiness Indices.

Sachs’ recommendation to appoint a Minister of Happiness could be adopted at some stage soon.

The Jeff Sachs Center for Sustainability in Malaysia could also work more closely with the EPU and other government agencies to see how our Happiness Index ranking of only 42 could be improved upon.

There should be much more discussion among government officials and NGOs and the Jeff Sachs Center and academia, on how to improve our Happiness Index.

Finally the high emphasis on economic growth should instead be gradually shifted towards providing more happiness to Malaysians, as higher incomes alone will not give us happiness.

Happiness is all-encompassing as man shall not live by bread alone. So lets pursue more happiness for our people.

And yes, we do need a Minister of Happiness soon. Maybe in the next Cabinet?

Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam is the Chairman, Asli Centre for Public Policy Studies

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