Beyond care centres: Making dignity a legal right for older adults

Malaysia's Constitution guarantees the right to life for everyone, but current policies fall short of ensuring the rights of all older adults

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We neglect older adults in society.

While there are laws regulating care centres and policies addressing ageing populations, they fall short of establishing a legal duty of care to ensure older adults live with dignity.

The Malaysian Federal Constitution guarantees the right to life under Article 5(1). The courts have interpreted this to cover the right to live with dignity.

Governments must recognise this right as a fundamental obligation. It must transcend cost-benefit analyses or voluntary frameworks, like the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA).

The duty of care owed to older adults is not charity; it is a fundamental obligation rooted in two core principles.

First, it embodies the government’s and society’s recognition of older adults’ lifelong contributions.

Second, it justifies the very purpose of government: it is an elected body that is obligated to serve the people’s needs, especially in their most vulnerable moments.

This duty is not one that governments choose to adopt; it is imposed upon them by the very nature of their existence and purpose.

Governments exist to serve the people

At its core, the government’s role is to ensure the welfare and dignity of the people across all stages of life.

This duty extends most crucially to the vulnerable, including older adults. An often-overlooked dimension of this obligation is the unacknowledged sacrifices made by many women, particularly mothers, who contribute to society by nurturing and raising children and maintaining the home.

Almost every contributor to society was once a child nurtured by a mother, who bore the physical and emotional burden of caregiving. This uncompensated work underpins the existence of everyone who later contributes to the collective good.

The constitutional right to life and dignity demands that governments honour these sacrifices by ensuring that no individual, particularly mothers, faces indignity or neglect when they grow older.

Why existing policies fall short

The Madrid action plan

Adopted in 2002, the MIPAA outlines a global strategy for addressing ageing populations. While commendable for its breadth, it fails to create enforceable obligations for governments:

  • Non-binding nature – The MIPAA depends on voluntary implementation. It offers no legal mechanisms to compel governments to prioritise elder care
  • Focus on development, not rights – While it promotes active ageing, the MIPAA neglects the foundational right to dignity. It treats the care of older adults as a societal benefit rather than a legal obligation
  • Lack of accountability – Without enforcement mechanisms, the MIPAA’s recommendations remain aspirational. They fail to ensure meaningful change

Malaysia’s Care Centres Act 1993

This Act, passed in 1993, regulates care centres by setting minimum standards for health, safety and management. It establishes important regulatory frameworks.

But it focuses on compliance rather than recognising older adults as rights-bearing individuals. This leaves many vulnerable.

The act does not address systemic issues such as underfunding and the lack of trained personnel. These problems undermine the quality of care in many registered facilities.

Most critically, the act fails to consider older adults living in abject poverty, forced to beg on streets and pavements. Their plight represents a stark indictment of a system that has prioritised regulation over compassion.

A transformative shift is needed – from mere regulation of facilities to recognising a legal duty of care for all older adults, grounded in the right to live with dignity.

Malaysia’s ageing population policies

Policies like the national policy for older persons (2011) and the plan of action for older persons (2011–2020) emphasise family and community support.

But they fall short in several critical areas:

  • Family-centric approach – By relying on families to care for older adults, these policies overlook the realities of modern society, where traditional support structures are eroding
  • Neglect of rights-based frameworks – The policies view ageing through a welfare lens, failing to recognise older adults as rights-bearing individuals entitled to state support
  • Exclusion of non-contributors – Those who are unable to take part in formal economic systems, like unpaid care providers, are particularly vulnerable. Yet these policies provide no safeguards for them. Take the case of a woman who spends her entire life raising a family. She is only recognised as a secondary beneficiary under current pension frameworks and Employees Provident Fund laws

Recognising the duty to care

The existing frameworks – like the MIPAA, the Care Centres Act and Malaysian policies – are inadequate. We need a transformative approach:

  • Legal recognition of the right to dignity – Governments must enshrine the right to live with dignity in enforceable laws. These laws must ensure access to healthcare, housing and financial security for older adults
  • Responsibility to the poor and vulnerable – This duty must extend beyond former employees with pensions or savings to include the poorest older adults. Many of them are forced to beg on streets and pavements for survival. Their presence is a stark indictment of systemic neglect and the failure to uphold basic human dignity
  • Compensation for unacknowledged work – Women who dedicated their lives to caregiving must be recognised and supported, especially in old age, as their labour underpins societal survival
  • Universal standards of care – Binding commitments must be established to prevent neglect and ensure dignified living conditions for all older adults, regardless of their financial or social status

The right to live with dignity is a moral, legal and social imperative that must extend to older adults.

The constitutional right to life underscores this duty. It obligates governments to uphold the dignity of the most vulnerable people.

The country’s elected representatives cannot feign ignorance of the importance of this obligation. After all, they themselves enjoy exceptional retirement and pension benefits.

Instead, they must embrace a rights-based approach, underpinned by enforceable legal obligations. This will ensure that older adults are not abandoned but cherished as integral members of society.

The time to act is now, before the neglect of older adults continues as an indictment of their failure as lawmakers and our collective humanity.

The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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