ALTHOUGH I will only be 50-years old this November, I recently couldn’t help myself from thinking – and talking – about what life would be like in our society when all of us as human beings get much older. I raised this up at three important meetings in three different places.
The first was in my home-ground at the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) where I serve as councillor.
I brought up the issue of elderly persons’ needs at our monthly full board meeting.
This is our most important meeting which is attended by our mayor, all our councillors and heads of all the departments.
The question I put forward to my colleagues was this:
“My fellow friends, in 25-years from now – when we are all a quarter-of-a-century older – will we as decision-makers of our beloved city, as well as planners, engineers and all, be able to proudly smile when we look back at PJ and say that we had done the needful during our tenure of service to make our environment liveable in order to accommodate us in our old age?
“Do we presently live and conduct ourselves with the full realisation that we are all only growing older each day and as a result will one day most likely require special people-friendly facilities to live out our lives?”
These include covered car parks to protect us from the elements to toilets wide enough for our children or caregivers to enter in order to provide some assistance for us.
“What about public parks?
“Will they continue to be designed only for the fit-and-young? Or will our outside environment include facilities to help us do normal things as elderly persons, such as be able to go out and enjoy some fresh air, sunshine and green therapy?”
I was referring to a fresh report from the United Nations that disclosed recently that our country is likely to reach an ageing nation status by 2035 with the number of people above the age of 60 reaching 15% of the population.
Welfare Department deputy director-general (Operations) Halijah Yahaya confirmed that the UN statistics was proof that the percentage of ageing people in Malaysia was on the increase.
Incidentally, the United Nations categorises any country with 10% of its population above the age of 60 as an ageing nation.
Speaking at a major seminar on caring society in Kuantan, a fortnight ago, Halijah concluded, “The government should therefore view seriously the ageing rate among the population especially because old people have their own requirements."
I was delighted that no one in MBPJ tried to pretend that enough was already being done in the policy levels at the moment to include the needs of elderly persons.
Instead, everyone at the full board meeting gave their thumping support to the motion to start planning now so that the city will be ready to embrace even more elderly people and their needs in the future.
A similar reaction was received from our national train service KTM Berhad in Rawang, Selangor and the Ministry Of Transport (MOT) in Putrajaya.
A group of us in wheelchairs were invited to the local train station to give our input to the present wheelchair-facilities. We found a number of areas where improvements could be made.
Such as the toilet door to uneven pavements and other areas that would be a hazard also for elderly passengers.
KTM Berhad took our suggestions positively and promised to make the necessary changes.
We also made it a point to have a discussion session with the train’s audit access team afterwards.
We took every opportunity to stress to them the urgency on why making the changes now was imperative.
At the MOT we were absolutely delighted when Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat also gave us the thumbs up to our suggestions.
He told us at his special meeting with the disabled community that he himself knew exactly how we felt when he had to use a wheelchair temporarily.
During his meeting with many top guns from the airlines industry, he stressed that disabled and elderly persons should always receive top priority in their services.
The Minister said that wheelchairs should be given free-of-charge for use in airports as this was their basic right.
He also urged airports to provide special transport vehicles such as ambulifts to carry disabled passengers into the aircraft where aerobridges were not available.
Airports should also consider Deaf passengers during emergencies, he said. Flashing light alarms throughout the airport – and in the restrooms – should be provided to warn hearing impaired passengers if there is a fire in progress as they are unable to hear alarm sirens.
The Minister also stressed on the need for customer service staff in all airline companies to be trained in assisting disabled passengers.
“They must have some basic understanding of disabilities (and old age problems) and know exactly what to do in order to make such passengers’ travel comfortable.” He concluded.
One other important issue that was raised up at the MOT meeting last week was for airports to provide disabled-parking lots at the entrances instead of special slots only for VIPs.
The End
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