BY 2030, 15% of the Malaysian population is projected to be aged 60 and above, and Malaysia will become an aged nation.
While the numbers climb, our readiness to care remains alarmingly low. Who will look after our older generation, and how?
There are many shocking news headlines as painful reminders of the reality that many older persons in Malaysia face care issues that lead to loneliness, neglect, and abandonment.
As Malaysia is ageing faster than we realise, care issues faced by our older persons are no longer just family issues.
Care has been seen as a family duty grounded in moral, cultural, and religious expectations for generations. However, times have changed.
Our families are smaller, our lives busier, and support systems stretched thinner than ever. Many caregivers are overwhelmed, underpaid or entirely unrecognised.
The reality? We have placed a significant responsibility on family members to become caregivers, especially women and adult children, without giving them any legal protection or support to do it well. Worst, when things fall apart, we blame them.
Preparing the next generation to care
Here is another concern. What happens when the young generation becomes the main caregiving generation?
Today’s young people are digital natives raised on social media and are independent. Many live far from home, pursue global careers, and see traditional caregiving roles as outdated.
Nevertheless, in just a few decades, they will be expected to care for an ageing population on a scale never seen before.
We must start preparing them now. Care education should begin early, not when crisis strikes. We must integrate ageing and older persons’ awareness into school and university curricula.
Other than that, promoting inter-generational empathy and understanding through community programs is important. Thus, shift the conversation about ageing from fear to responsibility and burden to dignity.
A missing legal framework
Malaysia’s laws have not caught up. While we have related policies and Statutes like the Care Centre Act 1993 and the Private Aged Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 2018, they mainly focus on institutions.
Informal, home-based caregiving, where most older persons’ care happens, is left in a legal gray zone.
Meanwhile, our country’s neighbours like Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand have already introduced specific laws that define older persons’ rights and caregiving responsibilities.
As such, Malaysia cannot keep kicking this can down the road. We urgently need a legal framework that defines caregiving responsibilities across society, not just within families.
Further, a law that cares for everyone. The older persons and their caregivers are included.
In summary, care is not just a “family thing”. It is a national and human obligation. For the sake of love, we must empower our older persons to live with dignity, autonomy, and respect.
Let us not wait until it is too late, as ageing is not someone else’s story. It is your story, my story, and the young generations’ story.
If we do not act now, we will keep reading the same headlines, feeling the same outrage, and doing nothing. But, if we start caring collectively, legally safeguard the caring act, and compassionately, we can change the ending.
We can build a Malaysia that honours its older generations, supports its caregivers, and educates its youth to continue the cycle of dignity through care actions because one day, we will all be the ones needing care.
The time to prepare is not in the future but now. As such, let us safeguard the love and care towards our older person with relevant laws because one day, we will rely on the legal system we choose to build today. ‒ May 28, 2025
Nur Faizira Abdul Rahman is currently serving the Centre for Foundation in Science, University Malaya (PASUM). She is also a Doctorate candidate at the Law Faculty of University Malaya (UM) and an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya (Non-practising).
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: UNFPA
