Saturday, March 3, 2012

TIME WE HAD A MINISTER FOR AGEING IN MALAYSIA

The above interview was conducted on 18 February and published today in The Star. If you don't have a copy of the papers, you can click here to read the article. Unfortunately, the full story is only available in the print edition.

I hope some of the issues raised in the interview gets the attention of policy-makers. It's about time. Australia has a Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mr Mark Butler. Singapore has a Minister of Health, Mr Gan Kim Yong, who is also Minister in charge of Ageing Issues.

When will the government here appoint a Minister for Ageing? The number of people aged 60 years and above will hit 10% by 2020. That's when Malaysia will become an ageing country, according to UN's definition.

Is the government waiting till the percentage goes higher before taking a serious look into the needs of the elderly? Giving a one-off sum of RM500 to eligible senior citizens brings only temporary relief. So much more needs to be done to help at-risk seniors, including those in the middle income group.

4 comments:

இ Baŋäŋaz இ said...

Congratz! tQ so much for raising the level of the ageing awareness. Great blog for the senior citizens to speak aloud. kudos.

seniorsaloud said...

Appreciate your feedback. Encourages me to continue writing and speaking out. Thanks!

Globalwealth said...

Found your blog while reading the Star. Keep up the good work.... I'll will keep coming back to read more.
Do you have a facebook to interact with your readers?
Chinese Recipes for all ages.

Anonymous said...

"Time we had a minister for ageing in Malaysia" end of quote

No, we will never have one under the BN government.
But we do have many ministers of scams and scandals!!!!
A surfeit of them!!!