BN Government fails to cater for the welfare of the ELDERLY in Malaysia

The UMNO led-BN government attempts to mislead Malaysians into believing that it is a caring government - that cares about its elderly - the 'warga emas' (or 'golden citizens') - and that was all that hoo-hah about pensioners - and the extra additional benefits that pensioners in Malaysia would enjoy.

What about the rest of the elderly in Malaysia - i.e. those that are not pensioners? Now, if I am not wrong, I believe that the number of pensioners since 1957 is less than 500,000 - what about the other 'warga mas' - in our country which has a population of more than 27 million today.

How many 'warga mas' do we have in Malaysia? How many of them are under the pension scheme? How many of them are spouses of persons under pension schemes that benefit from them? How many are those that do not receive pensions?

We really need statistics of persons above 55 years old (i.e. the normal age of retirement)? But then, when I went hunting for this information at the Malaysian Statistic Department website - I found that they did not have this required figure? They had figures for those who were in the following age groups only from 1963 until 2008 :-
0 - 14 years
15 - 64 years
65 years and above....

I wonder why there is no information about how many are above 55 years of age...

In fact, it will be good to know how many are 40-50, 50-55, 55-64, 65 and above. That will be needed for the necessary planning about our 'warga mas'.

Will some member of parliament (MP) ask these relevant questions?

How many of these persons over 55 (and retired) are on pension schemes?

How many are not?

Remember that our good government convinced many civil servants to opt for the EPF scheme - and they did so, and now they will no more be getting their pensions.

And the problem with the EPF, is that for many very little remains because again our goon BN government allowed persons to take out the mony meant for their old age t0 BUY things now. WHY? to help our ailing economy. Hence take your 'old-age-savings', and spend it now....What remains in the EPF accounts when persons retire now will not be able to sustain them for very long, would it now?

Now, for the self employed - there was no EPF - and after a time, you would not be able to work and earn anymore. Will there be enough monies to sustain you until the age of 72...77 or maybe even 100?

And the important news, is the Malaysian Life Expectancy is about 72 (male) and 77(women) - and that means we have to look at the welfare of our warga mas for a very loing time after they retire at 55 or 58...

Life Expectancy At Birth (Updated 2 January 2009)

Life Expectancy At Birth (Number of Years) 2005 2006p 2007p Male 71.4 71.5 71.7 Female 76.2 76.3 76.5

The Malaysian UMNO-led BN government (and even the possible future Pakatan Rakyat government) must seriously consider how it is going to take care of our elderly in Malaysia - our warga emas? ALL of them - not just the few 'pensioners'...

The current statistics say that there are more than 1.2 million persons in Malaysia above the age of 65.

If there are about 500,000 pensioners, then maybe those above 65 would be about 200,000 - so what about the welfare and care for the about 1 million above 65 Malaysians.

How about the welfare of the millions of Malaysians above 55.... this could be a further 5 - 6 million persons.

One thing that could be done immediately is to provide free healthcare and treatment for all warga emas above the age of 55 at our National Heart Institute (IJN)..

That is why, I believe that the government must put in place policies, laws and facilities to ensure welfare of its people - health, food, shelter, clothing ....and in today's world, it should also include communication.

Mohd Najib Razak, possibly the BN's choice for the next Prime Minister obviously is not interested in the welfare of individual persons in Malaysia - just the making of more money and profit. That was clear in his support for the privatisation of the IJN (National Heart Institute). Luckily, that has been stopped for the moment - but still IJN or Heart healthcare remains unaccessible to the normal Malaysian, who was not a public servant....or the majority of the elderly in Malaysia...