KL ready for explosion in an aged population

KL ready for explosion in an aged population

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Fewer births and longer lives will mean
elderly Malaysians will make up a growing percentage of the
population in the next few decades, pitting the government and
social groups in a debate over who will bear the burden of caring
for them.

The government, evoking "Asian values," is advocating that
families look after their elderly at home, while non-governmental
groups insist working families are already over-burdened.

"In an increasingly urbanized society, the family is still the
best to take care (of the aged)," Health Minister Chua Jui Meng
told AFP.

While the government is to draw up a national policy to
provide additional health services for the aged, the
responsibility for daily care should still lay with extended
families, Chua said.

But social workers have condemned the government's suggestion
of home care, billing it as impractical while pointing out that
in many families now, both parents hold full-time jobs.

"Women are already having difficulties looking after their
young. How can you propose they look after their aged as well?"
said Josie Zaini, president of the Education and Research
Association (ERA), a consumer rights group.

Zaini said more feasible options included building extra
nursing homes for the elderly and raising the present retirement
age of 55 so that the elderly could support themselves longer.

The government should also consider Singapore's policy of
handing out extra tax deductions for families with old people
living with them, she said.

Demographers have warned that Malaysia's declining birth rate
and longer life expectancy could result in 2.1 million people --
or seven percent of the population -- aged over 65 years by 2020,
qualifying as an "aged" nation under United Nations definitions.

Malaysia is still considered a "young" nation, with only
736,000 -- or four percent of its population -- considered
elderly in 1993.

But average life expectancy is set to increase to 75.4 years
for men and 80.4 years for women by 2020 from the current 69
years and 73 years respectively, officials said.

The government said its policy on the aged would go hand-in-
hand with its current media campaign to inculcate traditional
family values in pursuit of a "caring society."

But social activists are unimpressed.

"The 'caring society' is a myth," said Aegile Ferdandez,
program development officer at Tenaganita, a women's grassroots
organization.

"Government welfare homes and private nursing homes are
already full," Fernandez said.

Chua acknowledged that home care for the elderly could be
hampered by the breakdown of the extended family network in urban
areas but maintained that any hitches could be ironed out.

The ministry of human resources could look at implementing
flexible work hours to allow workers time to care for their aged
parents, he said.