Which are the 10 most happy cities in Malaysia 2019?

Wouldn't we be only able to judge after knowing how the survey was conducted, the scoring scheme and the scores? Without knowing the study methodology and see the 10 indicators below, I would think all scored low, even for the top 10 cities (assuming the respondents are not biased by the answering approach, and representative of the cities' residents)...

(i) Levels of life and health;

(ii) Happiness with family and relatives;

(iii) Working pleasure;

(iv) Financial management;

(v) Relationships with neighbors;

(vi) Community activities;

(vii) Security of residential area;

(viii) Public utilities and basic infrastructure provided;

(ix) Local services and local leaders; and

(x) Environmental quality.

I asked and received the following reply on the PLANMalaysia Facebook page:

According to a social media communication from (Alias Rameli of PLANMalaysia: Federal Department of Town and Country Planning Peninsular Malaysia) (https://www.facebook.com/chewboonhow/posts/10223161373445428:2), the Happiness index is one of the 39 indicators used to measure sustainability of each city (MURNInets: Malaysian urban rural indicators network for sustainable development, which was established since 2002). Some further information is avaliable at www.planmalaysia.gov.my.

The Happiness questionnaire has more than 40 questions, completed using face to face interview with respondents (individuals in the public are the unit of analysis) in each city, applying stratified sampling method with generally 95% level of reliability. All data were verified by Pusat Operasi MURNInets negeri, with inspektorat made visits to some selected local authorities (randomly?), and the results were endorsed by pusat operasi kebangsaan.

The approach of face-to-face interview are prone to bias, at least of the socially acceptable responses were unavoidable knowing the local cultures. Unclear how was the sampling of individuals as respondents in the survey, in the public areas, home visits, schools or work places? Were the interviewers trained and certified competent to conduct (non-judgemental) interviews? Although this does not overcome the potential cultural effects from the interview approach. Unclear how the selection of local authorities for their data to be audited was done. What were the audits and what mitigation measures were taken if data quality was questionable? The sociedemographic data of the respondents are THE basic information of any survey to help readers and users to get a sense of the study samples as whether they were representative enough of the cities but this is no where to be seen to go along with the publication of the findings. The actual summary scores are still unknown. I suggest and hope a full report of any such national surveys to be readily available when their findings go public.

Without the details in the methodology as delineated above, the findings of the survey can hardly be meaningful, isn't it? (Data is classified 'sulit' or confidential, as I learned from the Facebook comments thread between one visitor who was informed by the apparent data owner- Whatever reason could it be?! It is not going in line with the open science era of the day fro sure!)

1. http://www.planmalaysia.gov.my/?fbclid=IwAR0N4wg48rU-cqqBWLTRGIdcGzQD0aPg2nhKyS4pve4kyTJ-JdfkRe9kYng

2. https://siraplimau.com/10-bandar-paling-bahagia-di-malaysia-2019/