By: Natalie
Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (pg 14 )January 10, 2013
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/columns/onpointe
Measuring happiness or finding happiness seems to be the 'in' thing at
the moment. While individuals declutter in the New Year, leaders seem to be
venturing into measuring the happiness levels of their country. Of course,
Bhutan has been doing this for many years when their 4th King, Jigme Singye
Wangchuck, decided to measure happiness through Gross National Happiness (GNH)
as opposed to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
But how do you measure happiness? Bhutan uses a four pillar breakdown of
GNH which includes economic self-reliance, a pristine environment, the
preservation and promotion of the country's culture, and good governance in the
form of democracy. In essence, their leader is concerned with the wellbeing of
the people rather than economic numbers that translate little to the average
citizen. Now, if we were to use these headings, how would we describe our
country's GNH based on what is happening in Malaysia?
We seem to be on a thriving economic upward path, but how many
Malaysians are benefiting from it? As salaries remain stagnant, prices of
necessities continue to become more and more expensive, causing an increase in
household debt. A country as blessed as ours should be more self-reliant on
agriculture goods but somewhere along the planning process, we chose
industrialisation over agriculture when it did not need to be an either-or
choice. Investing in food security is essential and just plain common sense. We
will always need food, so why not invest in making us a self-sufficient
country?
Instead, we were a net importer of food in 2011 (RM34.5 billion) which
loosely translates to higher prices. This was felt hard when Thailand flooded
for weeks and the price of chillies skyrocketed. We still ignored the alarm
bells. This is probably because the policy and decision makers are not the ones
affected by the high price of vegetables or local fruit, while the people who
are highly affected go on a forced diet.
We aren't doing so great in terms of the environment either. Air quality
is left for wanting in many parts of the country and made worse during the
months when we blame neighbouring countries for open-burning each year, while
our lungs play host to the soot. Then there are issues like the controversial
multiple hydropower dams of Sarawak, the rare earth plant from Australia, the
multiple landslides and flooding that only increases in damage each year. It is
one thing when natural disasters occur but at some point we have to start
taking responsibility for the bad decision of overbuilding, over-logging and trading
our natural resources for far less than it is worth. Instead of protecting our
environment from destructive industries, we are welcoming many with open arms.
Is this then our culture?
For a country with a patchwork heritage, instead of embracing our
variety, we are using it as a crutch to fuel racism, which then mutates into a
defence mechanism where each race dissimilates instead of integrating. It's not
about giving up one's culture, but assimilating into the country we live in,
yet there are so many people that get by without speaking the national
language, ostracising themselves from interacting with people of different
races and cultures. Religion is used to separate and create more fractions
defying its purpose of creating unity.
All this then begs the question of how good is our governance? While on
one hand the government comes up with projects to make us self-sufficient in
food industries such as cultivating self-sufficiency in beef products, but such
projects never see the light of day because corrupt practises are not dealt
with seriously or swiftly enough. Our leaders are meant to be strengthening the
state, yet when one looks at the Puspahanas worksite and the amount of money
that will not be recovered, we wonder why these politicians are allowed to
continue to undermine and rob the state. Where is the accountability?
Our country suffers in the hands of an elite layer of influential people
who believe that he who dies with the most toys wins. This is a grave problem
when we start to measure the psychological pulse of our nation. All this
affects our morality and defines our ethos, corroding the core principles of
this nation. It's time we start stacking sandbags against these practises to
ensure our happiness even if we scored a B+ in the Malaysian Happiness Index.
Natalie would like to know where you would place
Malaysia in the Happiness Index.
Comments:
letters@thesundaily.com
