Senior Citizens Bill: Balance between law, pragmatism & traditional values needed

Figures by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development reveal that 2,144 elderly patients were abandoned in public hospitals from 2018 to 2022. While the Ministry has noble intentions in proposing to table a Senior Citizens Bill in 2024 to address elder-related issues as the country gears itself to be an ageing nation by 2030, Wanita MCA holds that this Bill cannot be rushed.

There must be a balance between the law, in particular the proposal to punish adult children who neglect their elderly parents, traditional values, morality, practicalities and infrastructure readiness.

When parents failed in their roles & duties as moms & dads

A case-by-case review must be conducted before any adult child is penalised for not being responsible to their mother or father. For example:

1) Victims of incest or physical abuse who remain traumatised even in adulthood. There is no guarantee that senior citizens will cease sexual violations or physical battering or domestic violence against anyone despite age having caught up with them.

2) If either parent had abandoned his/her spouse and offsprings, became uncontactable over the decades or refused to pay court-ordered alimony leaving the family impoverished, but he/she re-emerges in their lives in the latter’s twilight years.

3) Where there is no official divorce, but the estranged spouse has started a family with another person, or is a serial adulterer, whose salary will be deducted? The legitimate or illegitimate children?

4) On family inheritance, if certain beneficiaries are favoured over others owing to traditional gender preferences or ugly family politics; or, when the next-of-kin is excluded from the will or denied any distribution of assets and savings prior to the death of the patriarch/matriarch.

Pragmatism
For B40 or hardcore poor households, how will the adult child be expected to provide for the elderly when he/she is struggling to make ends meet for the immediate family with bills to pay, rent, tuition and schools transport fees due, or is jobless?

Infrastructure & human capital readiness 
Not only does the government need to prepare appropriate and sufficient amenities, the government also needs to upgrade facilities and transport infrastructure to be elderly or disabled-friendly to ease movements.  

Additionally, in government hospitals, there must be sufficient public sector equipment and healthcare staff and counsellors skilled in geriatric care to handle the emotional changes, mental and physical health.

Filial piety is an extolled virtue among Asians in particular. Not only should adult children look after their parents’ welfare when they have mobility or health issues or are financially lacking, if the adult children can afford it, they should also arrange for assisted living if the condition of a parent’s dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease has deteriorated.

-MCA online-