It is hard to describe what happiness is, but we all know what the experience is.
When you are happy, you don't want anything to change – you want everything to be exactly the same, because when things change, that is when you fear your happiness will disappear.
The contrary is true if you are miserable – if you are miserable, you can’t bear things remaining the same. You will want something to change, because it is only if things change that you won’t have to be miserable, and maybe even be able to find happiness.
As it turns out, Malaysians, it seems, want everything to remain the same, because according to a government survey, we are all a very, very happy people.
According to the government survey, on a scale of 10, our happiness level is a solid 7.6 – in terms of grades, that is a B plus. If the exams are tough and the benchmark is lowered, a 7.6 can even be considered equal to an A.
The "exams" are indeed tough in the world today – what with tariffs, World War 3 and an AI revolution that will likely change the face of life as we know it within our line of sight – but somehow in these difficult times, according to our government at least, we have scored an impressive 7.6 out of 10.
In some states like Terengganu, people are also so extremely happy that they struck an ultra impressive 8.64 on the happiness scale. I have no idea what is in the water of Kluang, Raub and Mersing, but the people in these districts are so blissed out that they are scoring
The people in Kluang, Raub and Mersing, in other words, are so happy, that the the drug enforcement agency should perhaps be increasing their monitoring of these three districts.
If the 7th heaven is a full 10 on the happiness scale, then life in Mersing, Raub and Kluang must equal that of a lower-level paradise to have the sort of score that they have.
Anyway, from my point of view, it would indeed be good if, as the government survey indicates, life in Malaysia is that good.
But at the same time, I have to say that when I first read the result of the survey, the first line that crossed my mind was that of Mark Twain, who famously remarked that in life, “there are three sorts of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
If mathematics were compared to the humanities, then statistics would be equal to politics – you can literally justify anything through it, so long as you adjust the parameters.
This is why, I suppose, more than in other branches of mathematics, the integrity of a statistician is of paramount importance.
In other branches of mathematics, it doesn’t matter whether it is a thief or a scoundrel that is doing the sums, because the results do not depend on the character of the mathematician.
In statistics, however, the message is only as good as the messenger. If the messenger is out, the message is not worth the paper it is written on.
Anyway, if the survey is to be believed, my congratulations to the government.
I think it bodes well for the government that they have done so well, that most people in the country are scoring a solid B plus in terms of happiness while some can even be said to be living in heaven on this earth itself.
I suppose the message here is that this government is doing so well for its people, that we should not want anything to change – we should want everything to stay the same – including this government.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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