Minister: I am sure Najib's personal happiness ranking has plummeted

Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad reciprocated with sarcasm to Najib Abdul Razak's remarks concerning Malaysia's dismal ranking in the United Nations World Happiness Index for 2019.

Thanking Najib, who is facing a slew of court charges over the 1MDB scandal, for his interest in the matter, the Amanah leader said the former premier might be the main contributor to the nation's ranking plummeting.

“I am sure his personal happiness ranking has plummeted,” he told Malaysiakini.

In a Facebook posting this afternoon, Najib took a sarcastic swipe at Khalid over his speech yesterday which lauded Malaysia's 35th position in the 2018 index.

The former premier pointed out that hours after Khalid's speech, the 2019 index revealed that Malaysia had slipped to the 80th position.

Najib attributed this to Pakatan Harapan churning out “lies” amid a bleak economic situation.

According to the UN report, its 2019 findings are based on three years of surveys taken by analytics company Gallup from 2016 to 2018, during which Najib was still the prime minister.

Meanwhile, Khalid said Najib was “still on a high and his scandals were only beginning to be understood” when the 2018 report, which took into account surveys from 2015, 2016 and 2017, was published.

Whereas, he noted that the 2019 report also encompassed surveys from 2018.

“In the first half of 2018, the rakyat were unhappy. That is why they dumped Najib (in last year's general election).

“The second half of 2018 was difficult. Half were happy because Najib (photo) was out, and the other half upset for the same reason.

“Malaysia was in uncharted waters as far as much of the public was concerned. Many projects were stopped as they were being reviewed by the new administration,” he added.

Khalid said the general mood is still one of relative sadness because the impact of the previous administration is being realised.

The minister explained that when he delivered his speech yesterday, the 2019 results were not announced, and therefore, he did not address the problems encountered due to the transition period.

“However I am confident that it will be resolved and our ratings improve as we put things right,” he added.

Meanwhile, in a statement later, Najib replied to Khalid's jab, saying the minister perhaps does not understand the term of "rolling three year period", on which the report was based on. 

He insisted that the plunge in ranking was due to Harapan's various "U-turns" and "lies". 

"Are the rakyat happy that the cost of living keep on increasing, although the government had pledged to lower it?

"Are the rakyat happy that many of the assistance previously extended to them have either been cut off or reduced?" he wrote. 

Replying to this, Khalid retorted that his personal survey shows that the majority of rakyat are unhappy because Najib is not yet in prison. 

"Despite his Bossku clowning, many want to see him behind bars," Khalid told Malaysiakini via text message. 

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