Trust among Malaysians can make the country a better place.

Zan Azlee wonders if trust can create a better civil society in Malaysia.

If people could trust each other more, then society can be much happier. It wasn’t just trust amongst neighbours and friends, but also trust towards police, government and other institutions.

Apparently, if 10 per cent more people felt they could count on others, then a more positive life satisfaction would be achieved, compared to giving everyone a 50 per cent pay raise.

This was a study conducted by economics Professor John Helliwel from the University of British Columbia, as told by author, Charles Montgomery, in his book Happy City.

This is interesting because it shows that at the end of the day, if you wanted to have a contented and matured society, money really doesn’t play much of an important role.

Now this isn’t exactly a new concept. Helliwell is actually just continuing the thought processes of many different thinkers and intellectuals over the centuries.

Greek philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle always related happiness to the development of society, which eventually led to the Greek concept of eudaimonia.

Eudaumonia, which came about during the glory days of the city of Athens, promoted the idea that personal and societal growth was dependant on public and civic-mindedness.

In the city of Athens, everyone (those who were full citizens and not slaves!) had a voice with which they could express their thoughts on state policies. Everyone participated.

There were large open air theatres where society could gather to have discourse, debate and even heated arguments with one another on how best to improve their lives.

Now, as the tabling of the national budget is about to happen in parliament, a lot of how the quality of life in Malaysia starts to focus around finance and money.

Of course, there is no denying that money and wealth does play an important role in happiness and contentment. But, obviously from the statistics, it isn’t the main thing.

When people are allowed to participate in civil society and given the responsibility to construct the structure that he will live in and live by, it gives them a greater sense of belonging and pride.

But in order for this to truly happen, there needs to  be trust. Friends and neighbours need to trust each other. Citizens need to trust their government and government needs to trust it’s citizens.

Trust that they will be responsible, matured, thoughtful and compassionate. At the end of the day, there needs to be trust that every single person in the country only wants what is best for society.

But then again, even in the greatest Greek city of Athens, their best thinkers and intellectuals were sometimes considered a threat to civil society.

Even Socrates, who was very vocal about youths being a part of civil society, was eventually sentenced to death due to his thoughts and ideas.

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