THE 10th MALAYSIAN HEALTHY AGEING HYBRID CONFERENCE
SPEECH BY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG YAB TUAN CHOW KON YEOW FOR THE 10th MALAYSIAN HEALTHY AGEING HYBRID CONFERENCE
15 March 2022 @ Bayview Hotel
YB Puan Chong Eng
Penang State Executive Councillor for Social Development & Non-Islamic Religious Affairs
YB Phee Boon Poh (attending via Online)
Penang State Executive Councillor for Environment & Welfare
YBhg Datuk Dr N. Ganabaskaran & Professor Dr. Tan Maw Pin
Organising Chairpersons, 10th Malaysian Hybrid Conference on Healthy Ageing
Professor Nathan Vytialingam
Advisor, Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society
Professor Dr Shahrul Bahyah Binti Kamaruzzaman
President, Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society
Organising Committee members
Friends from the media
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning to all of you.
I have the great pleasure of welcoming all honoured guests, speakers and participants of this 10th Malaysian Hybrid Conference on Healthy Ageing, to our beautiful state of Penang. It is also very gratifying to finally “physically” meet up those who are here after two years of travel and event restrictions although social distancing and mask mandates are still being enforced. I wish all of you here, as well as the many others joining us in cyberspace, a very warm welcome.
The State Government of Penang is very pleased to work with the Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society (MHAS) towards the fruition of this conference and even more so for the fulfilling of the objectives of MHAS to benefit the elderly in our community. In fact, the Penang state government started our very own Senior Citizens Appreciation Programme called Program i-Sejahtera way back in 2008 with an initial payment of RM100 annually to every senior citizen aged 60 and above. This year, we have increased the amount to RM200 per senior citizen which will benefit a total of 177,209 senior citizens at a cost of RM35.44 million.
Your primary goal to disseminate practical knowledge to both medical professionals as well as to the lay public on healthy lifestyles which promote healthy ageing is commendable. From my understanding, MHAS is well known for organizing the First World Congress of Healthy Ageing 2012 in Kuala Lumpur and the First ASEAN Conference on Healthy Ageing 2017 in Kuching. And today, we have succeeded in having your 10th Conference here in Penang despite the challenges and restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Well done to Professor Nathan Vytialingam and your dedicated MHAS team!
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Not long ago, the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc globally and resulted in the death of almost 6 million people worldwide. This pandemic tragically also highlighted the dangers of neglecting to provide quality public health services around the world.
Just as a stress test highlights the presence of a blocked artery and warns of an impending heart attack, the global pandemic of Covid-19, has highlighted the hidden deficiencies within many of our public health policies and has warned us of potentially devastating outcomes if we do not address these deficiencies before the next health crisis happens. As this pandemic winds down, we need to carefully consider what invaluable lessons it has taught us. We must take to heart these lessons, both of the successes and failures, and to apply them to future public health challenges.
One of these future public health challenges is that of the ageing population. Countries across the globe have reported falling fertility rates, many below replacement levels, while at the same time, human life expectancy has been steadily increasing due to effective public health measures and advancement in medical treatments.
The resulting shift in the demographic pattern predicts that eventually, we will have nations with smaller numbers of working adults supporting fewer children but larger numbers of non-working elderly adults.
This demographic pattern threatens to destabilize countries worldwide and is expected to affect our nation's future as well. The elderly over 60, was 7% of the Malaysian population in 2020 but is expected to double to 15% of all Malaysians by 2030, when we officially attain ageing nation status.
This demographic pattern appears to be irreversible. If we are to successfully navigate the challenge of maintaining a good quality of life in an ageing nation, we need to, immediately, intelligently and holistically, address the concept of healthy ageing.
We must start planning for the future immediately because any further delay in allocating resources for this goal will lead to it slipping further beyond our grasp. Traditional social safety nets like the Employment Provident Fund (EPF) are no longer viable guarantees of financial security in our twilight years like they used to be when the cost of living was much lower.
Technological advances in the Information Technology (IT) field allow us to get more done with less if, but only if, we can intelligently exploit that knowledge. Due to the demographic changes, our future communities will be left with less resources for the elderly. Therefore, technological solutions are a logical step to be the tool which allows the elderly to remain productive. One of the daunting tasks is getting our older citizens to learn to adapt to modern technology.
For this, I am happy to note the task which had been undertaken by the State Government agency Digital Penang two years ago when the Penang Senior Digital Resource Centre at Codrington Avenue was launched. Using the said premises in Pulau Tikus, Digital Penang carried out its Digital Coach Scheme and the Digital Promoter Scheme which targeted at aiding and introducing digital solutions to the public especially for the elderly folks.
In curating these 2 programmes, the Penang state government gave the elderly community a platform to practise, ask questions, make mistakes and most importantly, to learn.
These workshops and clinics provided demonstrations, coaches and tutorials which aimed to familiarise and to ease the elderly participants to grasp the basics of e-commerce, e-wallets and other digital transactions.
Lastly, we need to view human beings as a whole, not merely a physical body. People are unique individuals, each with dreams and fears and contributing members of our own communities. Healthy ageing, therefore, is not viewed solely as physical ageing of the body, but covering all aspects of the individual: mentally, nutritionally, socially, environmentally, intellectually, financially and technologically, spiritually and involving traditional and complementary medicine.
To this list, I must also add that the State Government also takes a legalistic view on the welfare of our senior citizens who are cared for in old folks homes in Penang. We have a 3-person committee chaired by YB Jagdeep Singh (the EXCO for Housing, Local Government & Town and Country Planning) and comprising YB Chong Eng as well as YB Phee Boon Poh who work vigorously with stakeholders in the aged care industry to update our council by-laws to best serve the interest of our senior folks in aged care facilities in the state, thus allowing them to live with dignity and protection in their twilight years.
The topics that will be covered during this 3-day conference will look at healthy ageing holistically. It is my ardent hope that this conference will be a very fruitful experience for all of you and I wish you a very good time in your stay here in Penang.
Thank you.