Extracts from a speech titled “How political parties can handle the challenges of social security and employment for the increasing aged population” by MCA Secretary-General Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun
At the 3rd Meeting of the Asia-Europe Political Forum (AEPF)
in Colombo, Sri Lanka on April 7 2019 (Sunday)
Inappropriate family planning makes life more difficult at later stage
MCA Secretary General Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun was a participant at the 3rd Meeting of the Asia-Europe Political Forum (AEPF) held during the International Conference of Asian Pacific Political Parties (ICAPP) in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She delivered a speech on “How political parties can handle the challenges of social security and employment for the increasing aged population”
(Colombo-7 Apr) In their pursuit of a life of comfort, young Malaysian couples increasingly resort to birth control. But a wrong understanding of family planning may lead to the infamous “4-2-1 Problem” faced by China, where its “One-Child” policy of 36 years, has left one Chinese adult child to support his or her two parents, and four grandparents.
Malaysia’s population is increasingly ageing due to birth control for a more comfortable life, to provide children with quality of life and good education, and other leading factors such as delayed parenthood and marriage, as well as medical advances facilitating a longer life.
An ageing population will unavoidably burden the nation with high socio-economic costs, and place financial and psychological pressure on families, and the government.
In 2014, the fertility rate for Malays and Natives (Bumiputera) was 2.6 per woman aged 15–49 years, whereas for Chinese and Indians it was 1.4. Coupled with crude death rate of 6.3 among Indians, 5.9 for Chinese, and 4.8 for Bumiputera, this has altered the ethnic demographic ratio in Malaysia, which impacted its growth in diversity.
To address the problems of an ageing society in Malaysia is not only tackling old folks’ issue per se, but we must start from the root, and check the decreasing birth rate.
Governments must formulate strategies to boost birth rates and roll out initiatives such as providing convenient and affordable child care, child education and health services to young families, while encouraging family planning based on family affordability rather than blind birth control.
Our national fertility rate is projected to decline to the lowest level ever recorded since the formation of Malaysia 56 years ago where overall fertility rate of Malaysian women aged 15 to 49 is 2.0 children, which is below the replacement level of 2.1 children, compared with 6.0 children per woman in 1963. For every 1,000 population, there are only 15.8 Malaysian live births in 2018 compared to 16.1 in 2017, off a high of 46.2 at Independence in 1957.
In Malaysia, the proportion of population aged 60 and over is projected to increase from 2.25 million or 8% in 2010 to 4.9 million or 15.3% in 2030 and 9.6 million or 23.6% by 2050. By 2045, those 60 and over will equal the number of young people below age 15, each making up 20% of the total population, and thereafter, the old will outnumber the young.
The elderly’s dependency ratio has increased from 9% in 1990 to 13.9% in 2015 and hit 39.5% by 2050. In contrast, the young dependency ratio has decreased from 90% in 1970 to 37% in 2015, and will drop to 28.3% by 2050.
Financially, the burden of sustaining an aged population on the future generations of Malaysia is heavy. With the current rate of retirement of 20,000 to 25,000 civil servants annually, in 10 years, public sector pensions will more than double to US$15.5 billion (RM63 billion) and hit US$24.6 billion (RM100 billion) by 2050. Contributory pensions, increasing the retirement age to 65 and limiting intake of new civil servants are measures considered to ease the Malaysia’s public purse.
Retirement brings huge challenges for Malaysians. Our national pension fund’s data shows the average saving for members aged 54 is US$52,806 (RM214,923) for men and US$39,876 (RM162,296) for women. Assuming Malaysians live until 75 with no major medical expenses and outstanding debt, those savings bring just US$6.14 (RM25) per day, or only US$199 (RM810) monthly which is just above the absolute poor, poverty line income of US$186.70 (RM760). The hard fact is that Malaysian retirees can only sustain life for five years after retirement!
It is incumbent upon governments to awaken the people to plan and prepare for ageing life, and implement preferential policies that encourage people to invest in retirement savings, as well as family planning education. This includes planning to conceive and deliver, medical care and community care services, so that problems encountered by the elderly maybe reduced and solved.
Participants pose in a group photo with the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe, standing fifth from right
Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun
MCA Secretary General
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