By Nur Faizira Abdul Rahman
By 2030, 15% of our population is projected to be aged 60 and above, and Malaysia will become an aged nation.
While the numbers climb, our readiness to care remains alarmingly low. Who will look after our older generation, and how?
Shocking news headlines serve as painful reminders of the reality that many older people in Malaysia face. They encounter care issues that lead to loneliness, neglect and abandonment. As Malaysia ages faster than we realise, care issues that older people face are no longer just family issues.
People have traditionally seen care as a family duty grounded in moral, cultural and religious expectations for generations.
However, times have changed. Our families are smaller and our lives busier. Meanwhile, support systems are stretched thinner than ever. Many caregivers are overwhelmed, underpaid or entirely unrecognised.
The reality? We have placed significant responsibility on family members to become caregivers, especially women and adult children. We have done this without giving them any legal protection or support to do it well. Worse, when things fall apart, we blame them.
- Sign up for Aliran's free daily email updates or weekly newsletters or both
- Make a one-off donation to Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara (ALIRAN), CIMB a/c 8004240948
- Make a regular pledge or periodic auto-donation to Aliran
- Become an Aliran member
Preparing the next generation to care
Here is another concern. What happens when the young generation becomes the main caregiving generation?
Today’s young people are digital natives raised on social media and are independent. Many live far from home and pursue global careers. They see traditional caregiving roles as outdated. Nevertheless, in just a few decades, they will be expected to care for an ageing population on a scale never seen before.
We must start preparing them now. Care education should begin early, not when crisis strikes. We must integrate ageing and older people’s awareness into school and university curricula.
Beyond that, promoting intergenerational empathy and understanding through community programmes is important.
We must shift the conversation about ageing from fear to responsibility and from burden to dignity.
Missing legal framework
Malaysia’s laws have not caught up. While we have related policies and statutes like the Care Centre Act 1993 and the Private Aged Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 2018, they mainly focus on institutions.
Informal, home-based caregiving, where most older people’s care happens, remains in a legal grey area.
Meanwhile, neighbouring countries like Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand have already introduced specific laws. These laws define older people’s rights and caregiving responsibilities.
Malaysia cannot keep kicking this can down the road. We urgently need a legal framework that defines caregiving responsibilities across society, not just within families. We need a law that cares for everyone – the older people and their caregivers included.
Care is not just a ‘family thing’. It is a national and human obligation.
For the sake of love, we must empower our older people to live with dignity, autonomy and respect.
Let us not wait until it is too late. Ageing is not someone else’s story. It is your story, my story and the young generation’s story.
If we do not act now, we will keep reading the same headlines. We will keep feeling the same outrage and doing nothing.
But if we start caring collectively, if we legally safeguard the caring act and if we act compassionately, we can change the ending. We can build a Malaysia that honours its older generations, supports its caregivers and educates its youth. This will continue the cycle of dignity through care actions.
This matters because one day, we will all be the ones needing care. The time to prepare is not in the future but now.
So let us safeguard love and care towards older people with relevant laws -because one day, we will rely on the legal system we choose to build today.
Nur Faizira Abdul Rahman currently serves at the Centre for Foundation in Science at the University of Malaya). She is a doctorate candidate at the Law Faculty of the university and (non-practising) advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
