The Grey Wave: How Malaysia is facing a demographic shift
THE World Social Report 2030 highlights the critical issue of an ageing population, which is one of the mega challenges of the 21st century. According to the World Health Organisation and the United Nations, a society is considered:
‘ageing’ when more than 7 per cent of its population is aged 65 or older,
‘aged’ when more than 14 per cent of the population is aged 65 or older, and
‘super-aged’ when more than 21 per cent is aged 65 or older.
Inclusive ageing is crucial in the transformative promise of the 2030 agenda of the SDG goals to eradicate any form of discrimination, exclusion, inequality, and vulnerability.
In 2022, Malaysia advanced towards an ageing society due to increased life expectancy and advances in medical care.
As the country transitions toward an aged society, the threat of increased poverty and vulnerability among older people (aged 65 years and above) will increase care expenses for the aged and burden the existing public health care systems.
The World Bank predicted that Malaysia will be an aged society by 2040, facing similar issues to Japan.
However, the country’s social protection system may not be prepared for an ageing nation status. Data from the World Bank shows that Malaysia will experience ageing faster than developed countries like Australia. The accelerated change in the nation’s demography poses several challenges for Malaysia.
The primary change in urbanisation and migration has resulted in fewer intergenerational households, increasing the burden of aged care.
Traditionally in Malaysian homes, the extended family tends to live together, allowing for shared resources and responsibilities for the child and aged care.
The elderly now have to be self-sufficient or financially independent. This proves to be a challenge, especially as many Malaysian EPF members are at risk of falling into oldage poverty due to inadequate savings, aggravating economic insecurity among older people, as highlighted by the media.
In addition, the aged are also deprived of the social and emotional support that comes from living and interacting with family members.
While digitalisation helps narrow the distance between family members, it also widens the gap in terms of physical bonds as a result of face-to-face communication. This is further exacerbated when many of the elderly are not digitally savvy.
This often translates to loneliness which can affect their emotional health. Moreover, Malaysians’ “healthy” life expectancy is about a decade less than their “actual” life expectancy, partly due to the pervasiveness of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol among the elderly.
As the elderly get less healthy, the burden of aged care often falls on the shoulders of informal caregivers and community helpers.
These are paid or unpaid individuals who provide physical, emotional and general care for the ageing person but may lack the formal basic training in the provision of care, leaving them with a sense of inadequacy in dealing with many of the emotional, medical and physical, tasks associated with providing care for the aged.
Finding work beyond the retirement age of 60 is challenging, even for the most competent or healthy individuals, as younger people are often favoured.
There is an unconscious or subconscious challenge of ageism: prejudice and discrimination towards older people at the individual or institutional level.
A lot can be done to address these challenges, which are only the tip of the iceberg. The elderly carry the wealth and wisdom of experience and can contribute to economic development.
They should be seen as valuable resources and not a burden. As Betty Friedman, an American feminist writer and activist, said, “Ageing is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”
Researchers from the School of Business, Monash University Malaysia, Dr Juliana French and Dr Sharon Koh Geok May, are currently working on a project – Greying Malaysia: how to ensure a sustainable future?
The project conducts a necessary and timely needs-based analysis of aged care in Malaysia.
The team aims to disseminate preliminary findings in a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders in the last quarter of 2023.