AUSTRALIA – Malaysia is ranked 4th most peaceful country in Asia and 20th globally, according to the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP).
In a report titled “Global Peace Index 2020: Measuring Peace in a Complex World”, Malaysia achieved a higher standing than most developed countries such as South Korea and Taiwan.
The Global Peace Index (GPI) covers 99.7% of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources. It also measures the level of peaceability across three domains – level of societal safety and security, extent of domestic and international conflicts, and degree of militarisation.
In addition to presenting the findings from last year’s GPI report, an analysis of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Positive Peace (i.e. the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies) was also included.
The analysis examined how the pandemic will increase the risk of severe deteriorations in Positive Peace over the next few years, particularly in terms of economic consequences, and gauged which countries are more likely to rebound quickly.
“The world is now considerably less peaceful than it was at the inception of the index. There has also been a steady deterioration in peacefulness for nine of the last 12 years.”
Although global peace has seen a drastic dip with an average score of 0.34, Malaysia managed to retain the score it achieved last year (1.525).
Malaysia only spent 0.9% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on military expenses, while the average stands at 3.9%. On a scale of 1-5, Malaysia scored 1.025 in the area of ongoing domestic and international conflict, higher than Belgium (1.053) and Australia (1.107).
The Global Peace Index
The GPI was founded by Steve Killelea, an Australian IT entrepreneur and philanthropist. It is produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank dedicated to developing metrics to analyse peace and quantify its economic benefits.
Sources: (Global Peace Index)
Editor: Raymond Chen
Proofreader: Sarah Yeoh
