Does the Happiness Index Reflect People’s Wellbeing?

James Chai, Visiting Fellow, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute

11-Aug-22 15:00

Does the Happiness Index Reflect People’s Wellbeing?

Pause
Embed

Recently, Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Abdullah said the following in response to the Malaysia Happiness Index 2022: “We are among the happy states. Happy means that the people are satisfied, the people are happy even if there are problems. That is why we are included in the happiness index. We got a score of 7.0, slightly different from Terengganu’s 7.2. Compared to Selangor’s 5.0, it is much different. That is a state that is said to be intelligent, ruled by Pakatan Harapan, the land is abundant, the state is rich, but the people are not happy.” But is the happiness index a good tool to measure how well citizens of a particular state (or country) is doing? We discuss this with James Chai, political analyst and Visiting Fellow, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Produced by: Dashran Yohan

Presented by: Dashran Yohan

This and more than 60,000 other podcasts in your hand. Download the all new BFM mobile app.

Categories: politics, government

Tags: socioeconomic development, happiness, poverty, wellbeing,

Today’s Shows

11:00 AM

Best of Enterprise

(REPEAT) Mimrah Mahmood, VP of Enterprise APAC at Meltwater, joins BFM to unpack their Digital 2026 Global Overview Report.

12:00 PM

Just For Kicks

(REPEAT) It's the FA Cup weekend, and so we look forward to the matches in the 3rd round.

1:00 PM

A Bit of Culture

(REPEAT) Dhanya Nair and Sudais Ferhard join Kam Raslan as they talk about protecting your peace, disaster paranoia and movies that are now unbearable!

2:00 PM

Ringgit & Sense

(REPEAT) Terence Ng, Associate Director of Equities at AIIMAN Asset Management, on the stock-picking strategies and overcoming common investor mindsets.

2:30 PM

The Property Show

(REPEAT) Dr Chua Yangliang, Head of Research and Consultancy for Southeast Asia at JLL, and Jamie Tan, Managing Director and Head of Valuation and Risk Advisory at JLL Malaysia, discusses the outlook for Malaysia's property market in 2026.

3:00 PM

Best of The Bigger Picture

(REPEAT) We speak to Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj about his new book, Notes on the Way Forward, which takes a sharp look at the structural failures of capitalism and how we can build a better world for everybody.

4:00 PM

Best of Evening Edition

(REPEAT) With TIME Magazine voting AI as their 'Person of the Year' of 2025, we discuss whether the past year has been a turning point for AI, and what 2026 will bring in terms of technological, economical and ethical breakthroughs.

5:00 PM

BBC World Service

BFM presents the BBC World Service, which provides in-depth coverage of issues from around the world.

PROGRAMMES