The government has been urged to not drag its feet on the tabling of the Senior Citizens Bill to address long-standing issues plaguing the elderly in Malaysia.
Experts say there is a gnawing need to address problems such as neglect and elder abuse especially due to post-pandemic pressures on families, adding the issues are not restricted to physical or emotional ill-treatment and that it also covers financial abuse.
This gamut of complex problems is why they think the government should bring forward it’s scheduled first reading of the bill in parliament from next year.
Most of the advocates also want to scrutinise the clauses being weighed for inclusion in the proposed bill.
Senior lecturer and public health medicine specialist at Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Medical Faculty Dr Halimatus Sakdiah Minhat said that the pandemic had exposed the demographic to unprecedented disruptions related to health, standard of care and social isolation issues while also throwing financial hardship into the mix.
“As such the law needs to be fast-tracked so citizens can access resources and support, especially financial assistance that they need to safeguard their health and quality of life.
She said that while she was not privy to the provisions in the proposed bill, aspects that need to be addressed include social security coverage, care for seniors with special medical needs, matters related to long-term mental and physical well-being as well as financial and wealth management.
“The law had to been delayed too long and by right it should already have been implemented as Malaysia would become an ageing population by 2030.”
Renewed interest in the bill formerly called the Aged Healthcare Bill reignited when Women, Family and Community Development Deputy Minister Aiman Athirah Sabu announced that it would be tabled in parliament next year.
Social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye however said there was a lot of time between now and next year for the bill to be finalised and tabled. Or, even for its first reading.
“I don’t why it is still being delayed because it was brought up and discussed by the authorities for several years now.”
He said many senior citizens associations had given their input and set up an informal coalition to lobby for the bill.
“At our age, we don’t have much time... everyone is waiting for the government to make the next move.
“And Malaysia is already an ageing nation... how long does it take for us to have proper legislation and the related policy framework to prepare for the challenges that come with it.”
According to the Statistics Department, Malaysia became an ageing nation in 2021 after 7% of the population reached the age of 65 and above. This jumped to 7.3%, the following year.
Lee said that he was approached by the coalition in question to meet with Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri. He is expected to meet her with a number of the associations at the end of the month.
“The purpose of the meeting is that they want an update on the Bill and to know when it’s supposed to be read exactly. They also want to highlight the issues related to the Bill and the consequences of a delay.”
Gerontologist Lily Fu said that as the proposed bill – meant to protect the rights and interests of the elderly – had been pushed back a number of times, the government should explain why.
“Is it stuck at some level due to controversial bits, does it have elements like punishing children who neglect or abuse their parents like Singapore does with the Maintenance of Parents Act? This is what people would like to know,” she said, adding that the issue was a thorny one as aggrieved parents who claim neglect by their children in the Lion City can pursue recourse in a state-appointed tribunal.
In the Singapore model, she said, both the parents’ and adult child’s versions of events would be heard. In the end, if there was no hope for the parties to reconcile, settlement in terms of monetary compensation would be paid to the parents.
“Then there are others who would say that sending mother and father to a nursing home is not abuse, hence the act must seek to clarify what is abuse and what is not. Also, what is neglect and what isn’t and what is the difference?
“Coming up with laws to punish children for sending their parents to homes should not be the spirit of this legislation.
“The circumstances have to be weighed and now more and more parents are choosing to live away from their children with their friends in shared homes and so on following in the trend of seniors overseas.”
She said when Deputy Prime Minister Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was the minister in charge in 2019, she announced that the act would be tabled ‘soon’.
Fu added three prime ministers have changed since, with the act no closer to seeing the light of day.
Earlier former Health Minister Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam also said the bill would be tabled in parliament in 2017.
Fu further said while the ageing crisis was hard to reverse, Malaysia could change the fate of those who would become seniors in the next two to three decades.
“All it takes is gumption on the part of ministers, lawmakers who are mostly seniors themselves. They are in the age bracket and have to care for senior family members as well. So they too must want or need to fight for these safeguards in the future, even if it means it’s only doing it for themselves.
“They have to be ready and have strategies because if not it would burden the already weighed down economy, hospitals and welfare system and would cause systems to collapse. Time is not on our side.”
Fu said a preview of what to expect would be helpful as all these discussions at this point were guesswork.
“We need a public engagement and a roundtable on some of the highlights of the proposed bill cause it is very hard to talk about it if no one has seen it, plus it needs to be a very bottom-to-top approach with those drafting the law inviting the local community in places like PPR because these are where the elders whose voices matter the most live and they will benefit the most from well thought out systems.
“Then we need the doctors, gerontologists, NGOs and so on to push lawmakers and the authorities.”
Fu said the law should also boost the profile of the elderly and their significant standing in society to enable better public spending for seniors.
The 75-year-old founder of Seniors Aloud, an online network of senior citizens recently griped about the crumbs given to the demographic in the recalibrated budget.
She said more nursing and assisted living homes to support those who needed care on a long or short-term basis had to be built, and senior activity centres had to be supported with funding for programmes on upskilling for IT skills and so on. Fu groused that she visited a few of the centres and found them locked and disused.
“Then there is also the issue of the underfunded national public healthcare system and seniors especially those visiting clinics can have their wait time significantly reduced if there were more GPs in public health clinics and if the clinic’s service hours were extended.”
Fu also said that there was an overall need for detailed and extensive surveys to glean data to create a blueprint for what needs to be done over the next decade for seniors.
Fu said that there was a need to gauge the weight of the B40 elderly against the overall elderly population in Malaysia and see where they lived.
The authorities had to establish whether they were living in their own homes, rented facilities, with their children, in shelters or on the street.
Their financial statuses such as income, pension, allowances from children and debt load and types and repayment periods also had to be looked into.
“We also need to know the health conditions of the overall senior community, their plans for the future, happiness index and do they want to work, can they, in terms of their skills, capacity and market uptake and if they do how much they contribute to the economy and so on.”
She also said the data would also push the government to do better for the community in terms of social security and welfare packages for the B40 and PwD seniors.
It would also reopen the subject of providing seniors, especially those past retirement, with jobs and opportunities for subsidised education and training.
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