In recent times there has been growing interest in the international community in measuring happiness, a concept that was introduced in Bhutan, about 40 years ago by its fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck.
Instead of using the common Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, Bhutan uses Gross National Happiness Index (GNH) to measure quality of life or social progress in more holistic and psychological terms as compared with just economic growth.
The growing enthusiasm in GNH resulted in; Bhutan persuaded to propose a resolution on happiness at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last year, which was passed unanimously.
The resolution required Bhutan to host a discussion, which it did in April 2012, but due to the huge interest the discussion was elevated to a high level meeting with participation from the government, civil servant, civil society, the academia, corporate world, Nobel Laureates and spiritual leaders.
“There was a big success. We were rather intimidated with what rather transpired. It is huge responsibility now for us. It was scheduled as one-day meeting but it had lead to become a four-day event,” its Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley said recently.
The aim is to present it to the UN General Assembly for a concrete proposal of a new economic paradigm that is sustainable, that is holistic and inclusive.
“The reason why we ended up we the responsibility was because in the proposal that we made in the high level meeting is that the world has changed.
The business and individuals cannot grow and that we are living in an era that increasing threatened, that we have adopted a financial system or economic system that is self- destructive and not sustainable and there are enough evidence,” he said.
In the same month, UN launched the First World Happiness Report. Malaysia was placed as the 51st position the World Happiness ranking among the 156 countries surveyed.
In the report it stated that the happiest countries in the world are all in Northern Europe (Denmark, Norway, Finland, Netherlands). Their average life evaluation score is 7.6 on a 0-to-10 scale.
The least happy countries are all poor countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Togo, Benin, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone) with average life evaluation scores of 3.4.
“But it is not just wealth that makes people happy: Political freedom, strong social networks and an absence of corruption are together more important than income in explaining well-being differences between the top and bottom countries,” said the report.
At the individual level, good mental and physical health, someone to count on, job security and stable families are crucial.
The global community probably has realized something that Bhutan did four decades ago that GDP or wealth growth not necessarily a true reflection of people’s happiness.
Seriously, what does a 0.1 per cent or 9 per cent GDP growth mean to layman on the street. How many Malaysian out there actually wait for the figure to be released to measure their wealth and happiness?
Even for a journalist, at most time it is just a news report done at the end of every quarter.
ISIS Malaysia’s analyst, Alizan Mahadi said in his column recently that undeniably, the GDP has served Malaysia well and will continue to do so.
Malaysia has transformed itself since the 1970s by averaging impressive growth rates.
However, in what is termed the Easterlin Paradox, studies indicate that whilst societies tend to be happier with an increase in income to meet basic necessities, beyond a certain point, the relationship between happiness and income is only down to how your earnings compare with those around you, he explained.
So, probably a happiness index along with GDP would help reflect the real growth of the country and if that has kept 28 million people happy. – END
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