MALAYSIA is the 20th most peaceful country in the world, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2020, an annual rating conducted by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) since 2008.
Iceland, the small Nordic nation at the edge of the Arctic, has been No. 1 for as long as the GPI has been published. But more of this later.
Interestingly, Malaysia is one rank below Bhutan, the country that invented the happiness index. There is another happy news for us, too.
Malaysia is the most peaceful among the Islamic nations the IEP ranks. This is no surprise as most of them are in conflict-ridden Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. But can peace be measured?
The IEP certainly thinks peace can be quantified even in this complex world. Using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators, the IEP measures the state of peace across three domains: level of societal safety and security, extent of domestic and international conflicts, and degree of militarisation.
Somewhere there, too, is what the IEP calls "positive peace", such as attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies. Herein may lie Iceland's recipe for peace.
Critics in countries which are ranked low may say that GPI 2020 or any other global index is an attempt at comparing apples and oranges. Reason? Iceland is only 103,000sq km and sparsely populated with 365,000 people.
Such thinking retards thoughts. Those who want to take their nations forward will delve deeper. Land area and population shouldn't stand in the way of exploring ways to bolster attitudes, institutions and structures that promote a peaceful society.
Singapore is number seven, not because it is small, but because the islanders do some deep thinking. Iceland must be doing something right for it to top the ranking for 13 consecutive years.
In a 2017 study, the Nordic Council of Ministers addressed itself to the question: Is the Nordic region best in the world? The answer was an unequivocal "yes". The council reasoned thus: life there is generally good.
The people are among the most prosperous in the world. The press there enjoys considerable freedom and the region is the least corrupt in the world. Men and women enjoy greater equality than anywhere else.
And what's more, the people of the region are the happiest in the world. Like its Nordic neighbours, Iceland does well in three broad areas.
Firstly, Iceland is well-governed. It has an effective public administration, laws are enforced and corruption is kept low.
Out of a possible 100 points, Ireland scored 78 in Transparency International's 2019 Corruption Perception Index. In the World Press Index 2020, Iceland was ranked 15, a drop from 14 in 2019.
Secondly, Iceland has a relatively high social capital, meaning Icelanders have a high level of trust in society.
A study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says 98 per cent of Icelanders believe that they know someone who they can rely on in time of need.
This may be one reason why Icelanders are among the happiest people in the world.
Finally, Iceland has among the lowest income inequality in the world. GPI 2020 shouldn't be read as an attempt to turn every country into an Iceland.
Rather, there may be something that Iceland is doing right that others may want to think about. Who would argue against good governance, high social capital and low income inequality?