THE SILVER JUBILEE HOME ANNUAL CHINESE NEW YEAR DINNER

SPEECH BY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG YAB TUAN CHOW KON YEOW FOR THE SILVER JUBILEE HOME ANNUAL CHINESE NEW YEAR DINNER

19 February 2024

Silver Jubilee Home

YB Puan Lim Siew Khim

Penang State Executive Councillor for Social Development, Welfare and Non-Islamic Religious Affairs

 

YB Sim Tze Tzin
MP for Bayan Baru & Trustee of the Silver Jubilee Home

 

YB A. Kumaresan

ADUN for Batu Uban & Trustee of the Silver Jubilee Home

 

YBhg Dato’ Seri Chong Eng

Trustee of the Silver Jubilee Home

 

General Committee Members of the Silver Jubilee Home

 

Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

 

All the Staff & Residents of the Silver Jubilee Home

Good evening to all of you.

First and foremost, as the Chairman of the Board of Trustee of the Silver Jubilee Home, I would like to wish everyone here a Happy Chinese New Year and “Gong Xi Fa Cai”.

I would like to take this opportunity to also welcome the newly appointed members of the Trustees and the Committee members by saying “Welcome to the Silver Jubilee Home Family”.  There will be a detailed overhead projection on the introduction of the committee members later.

For the residents here, I sincerely salute those of you who are ageing actively and graciously. May you all continue to live life to the fullest in our greener and friendlier beloved state of Penang! The state government has plans for our wargaemas and those who are approaching their twilight years. All of us can be rest assured that we will be well taken care of, if not by our family members, then at least by the state government through our age-friendly policies.

Currently, there are a total of 138 residents staying in the Home.  Care and compassion are strongly needed to pursue our goal in managing this Home.  I strongly hope the new committee and the staff be a closely knit family to pursue our vision and objectives to elevate the home to a higher level. I have no doubt that the Silver Jubilee Home as one of the most well-run centres for the elderly in Malaysia will only improve further and continue with its excellent work. 

Ladies & Gentlemen,

In fact, we have been making consistent efforts in advocating the importance of active-ageing for the past few years. The Penang state government, in collaboration with the Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society (MHAS) through the Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC), is working continuously on this cause.

The fact that elderly care homes are mushrooming all over the state indicates that our life span is getting longer and we are becoming an ageing society. Like it or not, this is the trend in Malaysia and also globally especially for developing countries.

Adding to that, I hope the new committee could help to bring in more residents and donations as we have the capacity to absorb more residents.

It is a challenging task in the beginning, but as we move on, things will brighten and lighten up eventually. So, with that, I wish all those who have taken up responsible positions good luck in your undertakings.

May the Year of the Dragon be a blessing to all of us for giving so generously, not only in financial support but also the time, labour and effort extended for the betterment of the Home and its residents.

Thank you very much.