MALAYSIA IN 20TH SPOT ON PEACE SURVEY
By YISWAREE PALANSAMY | yiswaree@nst.com.my
13 June 2012
KUALA LUMPUR: MALAYSIA is the 20th most peaceful country out of 158 nations, according to a report released yesterday.
The 2012 Global Peace Index (GPI) compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) scored Malaysia at 1.485, ahead of 138 countries, including Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Iceland, for the second successive year, is the most peaceful nation, with a score of 1.113, followed by Denmark and New Zealand, which share second place with a score 1.239.
Though Malaysia dropped a rung from last year's 19th spot, the latest findings show that the country is still the most peaceful in the region. The 2012 GPI places Australia at 22nd, Singapore at 23rd and the UK at 29th.
Nations considered more peaceful have lower index scores and vice versa for strife-torn nations.
This the sixth edition of the world's leading measure of global peacefulness produced by IEP. The GPI ranks the 158 nations using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators, which gauge ongoing domestic and international conflicts, safety and security in society, and militarisation, among others.
GPI found improvements in the political terror scale and gains in several indicators of militarisation arising from austerity-driven defence cuts, as the two leading factors making the world more peaceful this year. This reverses the findings from the previous two years where, GPI showed a decline in global peace.
"What comes across dramatically in this year's results and the six year trends is a shift in global priorities," said Steve Killelea, IEP founder and executive chairman.
"Nations have become externally more peaceful as they compete through economic, rather than military means."
IEP is a non-profit research organisation dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.
It has offices in Sydney, New York and Washington, and it works with a wide range of partners internationally.
For the sixth consecutive year, Western Europe remains markedly the most peaceful region with the majority of countries ranking in the top 20.
The 2012 GPI ranks the Middle East and North Africa as the least peaceful region globally.
-New Straits Times