Trust and happiness in Malaysia

MALAYSIANS are a lot less happy in the period of 2016-2018, compared with 20152017, according to the recently published 2019 World Happiness Report. The study, which was produced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, in partnership with the Ernesto Illy Foundation, showed there was a steep plunge in the happiness index of Malaysia between those two periods. The latest happiness report, which covers the period from 2016-2018, ranks Malaysia the 80th happiest nation out of the 156 countries surveyed. This represented a drop of 45 places compared with the 2018 report, which covered the period from 2015-2017, and ranked Malaysia the 35th happiest nation in the world. In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is now ranked fourth behind Singapore (34th), Thailand (52nd) and the Philippines (69th), compared with the previous report which ranked Malaysia the second happiest in the region. According to the 2019 World Happiness Report, which was written by a group of independent experts, there is a strong link between how governments behave and the happiness of the people. It says the links between the government and happiness operate in both directions: what governments do affects happiness, and in turn, the happiness of citizens in most countries determines what kind of governments they support. Needless to say, though, besides governments – which set the institutional and policy framework in which individuals, businesses and governments themselves operate – other factors will also affect the happiness of the people. These include community engagement and the influence of digital technology. Where Malaysia scored poorly in the latest study was in the areas of corruption and social support. Meanwhile, following the change in government after the 14th General Election (GE14) in May 2018, there seems to be a change in the mood of Malaysians in general. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report, which was released early this year, trust among Malaysians towards major institutions in the country such as government, business, media and non-government organisations has improved overall. Trust towards government was particularly evident, with an increase of 14 percentage points to 60%. That the survey was conducted between Oct 19 and Nov 16 last year - just months after the GE14 – was indicative of the optimism among Malaysians following the change in government.