Older folk left behind in ‘ghost towns’
Number of sub-districts with an aged society has more than doubled in 10 years
PETALING JAYA: Starting today, rural and suburban areas all over the country are going to come alive again with traffic jams, joyous young children, and packed bazaars as Malaysians return home for Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
The noise, colour and crowds are a welcome break for these towns, which have been “greying” over the past few decades as the proportion of elderly residents grows while younger ones leave in search of better jobs elsewhere.
During non-festival days or when the school holidays are over, these areas slowly turn back into ghost towns.
“We have towns where all or almost all are senior citizens; the place is not growing anymore.
“The biggest factor is that there are no economic drivers or job opportunities to maintain the youth,” said Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (Myageing) senior research officer Chai Sen Tyng.
“It is so bad in some areas that they only look forward to weekend visitors when families and children come to visit.
“On weekdays in rural areas, there is practically nothing there,” he said.
The return of families to their hometowns brings a “small economic boom” for local businesses.
According to the 2020 Mycensus by the Statistics Department, the number of sub-districts with an aged society, where 14% of the population has reached age 65 and above, has more than doubled within 10 years.
In 2020, a total of 150 sub-districts, consisting of mukim, bandar and pekan, had 14% or more of their population aged 65 years and older.
Out of the 150 sub-districts, 41 have reached a “super-aged” society where 20% or more of its population are aged 65 years and above.
There were 57 aged and 15 super-aged sub-districts in 2010.
The department identifies mukim, bandar and pekan according to the National Land Code (Act 828).
There are 1,730 mukim, bandar and pekan in the 13 states in Peninsular Malaysia, excluding Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan.
There are 1,065 mukim, 260 bandar and 405 pekan.
The United Nations has defined three categories of ageing: an ageing society, an aged society, and a super-aged society.
An ageing society has 7% of its population aged 65 years and above, an aged society has 14%, and a super-aged has 20%.
The migration of residents from these areas to cities and other areas is among the factors contributing to this situation.
According to the Statistics Department, Hulu Selangor’s Pekan Kerling is one such place.
Its population may have grown by 287% but its elderly now make up 40% of its 360 people.
A decade ago, the elderly population made up only 8.6% of its population.
Meanwhile, the elderly in Mukim Kerling make up 25.2% of its population, while Muar’s Bandar Bukit Kepong has an elderly population of 23.9%.
“It is likely that these are now old townships and there is very low demand,” said Chai.
He said district health offices also have difficulty reaching people in these areas.
“How do you ensure support and care reach these people?
“Because the elderly are sick or immobile, the district health offices may not have the manpower to visit deep or rural areas,” he added.
Chai also said that abandoned housing and farms are another effect of an aged society.
He said in other countries, local governments have an integrated system where health, education and other important areas are under their purview.
“We don’t have that sort of devolution and empowerment. When we don’t have that, we don’t see the whole thing as an ecosystem,” he said.
Chai said in some areas, like Taiping, there are facilities like the Komuter and Electric Train Services (ETS) that make it easier for children or families to visit or travel.
The government, he said, has to increase economic activities in suburban areas, such as boosting the creative economy and encouraging local industry players to set up factories and offer job opportunities.
“When you have economic drivers, populations move and change.
“When a new factory is set up, a younger population will come in. It’s not hard for the government to change the fate of a community.
“The old formula is to build a university, then the price of property goes up and cafés and restaurants grow with the presence of young people,” he added.
The country needs more sustainable community-based services as well as a lot more facilities and services for the elderly, said Chai.
“We have very good coverage; we have over a thousand public clinics (and) over 300 government hospitals, but we lack affordable community services because we do not have dedicated funding,” he said.
He added that countries like Singapore provide good healthcare to their people, as its residents pay to medicate and have long-term care insurance.
“We lack community programmes and services. Now it is still driven by the private sector because the government does not have enough funds to pilot its own,” he said.
The government, added Chai, must make a commitment to prioritise the needs of the elderly to ensure that the future of the country’s aged population can be sustained.
HULU SELANGOR: A hot spring and river flow through Kerling, but the nature-rich small town is not the bustling place it used to be.
Located an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur, Kerling was once a busy town, where youngsters flooded the area as trainees under the National Service Training Programme (PLKN).
When PLKN was abolished in 2018, Kerling turned into a sleepy town with a dwindling population, where most of those left are the elderly.
Pekan Kerling has two main rows of shoplots but most of the shops are shuttered.
According to the Statistics Department, Mukim Kerling saw a 53% drop in residents aged below 65 in 2020, compared with a decade ago, while the number of the elderly aged 65 years and above grew by 269%.
“Kerling was once a very lively town. Every few days or on weekends, we would see the trainees coming into town and doing community services like cleaning up the old folks home here,” said laundry shop manager Dauwiyah Md Razali, 49.
She said now, Kerling is a quiet town and she barely sees seniors at the old folks home either within their compound or visiting town.
“When passing through the old folks home, I would often only see three or four elderly sitting on the porch. It really is quite sad.
“Many shops in the area have closed down and there was one resort in the area that opened for just one big event but later couldn’t sustain itself. There just aren’t many people here now,” she added.
However, Dauwiyah said Kerling still attracts many local tourists who go camping on weekends and public holidays.
“Kerling now has camping sites at the river, hot springs and farms to cater to the demand.
“We only have a few restaurants, grocery shops and workshops in the area. Even the local market has closed down and was replaced by a grocery shop. I often buy raw fish once a week at Kalumpang,” she said.
Vegetable trader Low Foong Kiew said there were many elderly who lived in the area.
“We used to have a lot of youngsters around but many of them
left to pursue jobs in the city,” said the 55-year-old.
She said she opens her stall for two to three hours a day as there aren’t many customers.
“Even on weekends when we have tourists, they just pass through to go to the camping spots and do not buy anything,” she said.
Meanwhile, 36-year-old Mohd Faiz Akmal Yahya is among many youths who have left small-town Kerling.
He had lived in Kerling for more than three decades but recently moved to a nearby town in Rasa Tambahan, Kuala Kubu Baru in search of better facilities and living environment.
“My father bought a house in nearby Rasa Tambahan when he retired as a teacher and had to leave the Public Works Department home quarters in Kerling.
“I followed him and bought a house near my parents as I wanted to regularly see them.
“There were no suitable areas in Kerling where we could move to. Kerling’s biggest draw is that it has rivers where we could take our family on weekends,” he said.
Mukim Kerling Penghulu Mohamad Zaim Mohaimin said Kerling is an isolated area with only two communities – namely the traditional kampung, which is inhabited by the Malay community, and kampung baru, which is populated by the Chinese.
“Senior citizens in Kerling have to travel at least 15 minutes to the nearest town to access banking services and there is no public transport.
“There is no real purpose to stimulate economic activities here,” he said.
He said Kerling is an agricultural and leisure destination, not like other nearby areas such as Bukit Beruntung and Kuala Kubu Baru, where offices and universities are located.