SEPTEMBER 28 — It struck me that the only way a senior citizen can be guaranteed generous benefits and employment (if they chose) is to be successful in politics.
When I was a child, people the age of our current batch of senior politicians would be considered prime candidates for retirement homes but thanks to the miracles of modern medicine we live a lot longer now.
This isn’t about ageism. I have always believed that citizens of all ages should get a voice in governance and be given every opportunity to participate in civil society.
Yet it feels strange that our political scene is so dominated by old men and yet we do not seem to have put enough thought into how we will cope with an ageing population.
As the latest numbers from the Department of Statistics show, our aging population is steadily increasing.
People aged 65 and older made up 7.4 per cent of the population in 2021, up from seven per cent the previous year. Meanwhile, those of working age (15-64) decreased from 69.7 per cent to 69.6 per cent in the same period.
I see people suggesting Malaysians should be made to pay more for healthcare while blithely ignoring that while inflation has continued its steady chug, salaries have been depressed for decades.
Now the newest batch of fear mongering articles that keep making the rounds is about how many Malaysians won’t have enough in their EPF to comfortably live on in their golden years.
Are we supposed to blame them? Should we be calling for a delay in retirement age? The reality is that the Malaysian unofficial motto (as is the government’s) is to pandai pandailah (figure it out somehow).
I think we have to figure it out now. At the heart of it all is we have to figure out how to improve incomes and spread out prosperity, as well as start working on preventative healthcare.
Alleviating poverty is also healthcare. If people have adequate shelter, enough nutritionally sound food to eat and are given every opportunity to live healthier lives, they would.
Instead victim blaming and personal responsibility mantras keep getting touted out.
“Malaysians are too lazy.”
“Malaysian food is too fattening.”
“Malaysians don’t make wise buying decisions when buying food.”
Inflation is so bad now I no longer shop at higher-end grocers and choose the nearby Lotus hypermarket or browse coupons on Grab Mart.
Imagine how much harder it must be for people with more mouths to feed.
We spend so much on subsidising fuel when we probably would be better off using the money for free school meals and subsidising basic food stuffs.
It is on us to give seniors better option because the reality is that we are looking at our future.
As the pandemic should have taught us all by now, life is unpredictable and can quite literally change overnight.
Yet in such an insecure world we could and should do more to provide some security for those in their twilight years because one day there might well be more old folk than young.
The young carry our hopes but the old are reflections of our future and our past.
In this present, we should acknowledge them both and create a world where age will not be a measure of our worth and quality of life.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
