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.