Malaysian Quality of Life Index

The Prime Minister's Department (which is actually a Ministry, but the PM didn't like the sound of "Prime Minister's Ministry") has recently published The Malaysian Economy in Figures - 2007. This annual publication usually has some pretty interesting statistics (interesting to me, anyway), including the recently introduced Malaysian Quality of Life Index.

Revolutions in social rights movements have resulted in governments and systems being forced to recognise that the well-being of an economy cannot be measured by money (GDP) alone. Quality of Life indices have sprouted worldwide to measure the levels of other factors that contribute to a nation's overall welfare, such as the wealth distribution, leisure time, etc.

The common way to measure such an index is to set a base year (1990 in this case), call everything in that year 100. Then they use a 'basket of goods and services' to determine if the parameter has improved or not. The measures can be completely arbitrary. Generally, one would think that the government would gloss over any shortcomings and report that we're a blissful nation.

However, take a closer look and see. The environment has reduced by 0.33 since 1990. Or so they say. If I could, I'd contest that and say that the general environment has gotten much worse since then.

Public safety, however, has decreased by a whopping 21.5. That's massive. Goes to show that even the government can't deny that public safety is a huge issue today, with ever increasing crime rates.

I don't really know what my point was to start out with. Maybe it was just to bring the Malaysian Quality of Life Index to light. Not many people know about it. Maybe it was to highlight the fact that we should be careful in day-to-day life. Someone got robbed last night at my office, right in front of the office buildings and next to a busy highway. These criminals are desperate and will do anything to get money.