COMMITTEE ON PROBLEMS OF THE AGED (Objectives and programmes)

Encik Mansor Haji Sukaimi asked the Minister for Health the objectives and programmes of the Committee which was formed recently to study the problems of the aged and to state the types or areas of problems that will be looked into by this Committee, and whether community or civic organizations in constituencies can be of any assistance to this Committee and, if so, what are the specific areas where such cooperation can be made.

The Minister for Health (Mr Howe Yoon Chong): Mr Speaker, Sir, the objectives of the "Committee on Problems of the Aged" are outlined in its Terms of Reference and are in two parts. Firstly, the Committee will study the general problems affecting the increasing numbers of people over 60 years old in our population, their repercussions to our society, and to recommend measures to prevent, ameliorate, and deal with those problems. Secondly, the Committee will focus particular attention on eight specified areas and make recommendations to deal with them; viz, how to -

(i) change accepted ideas and attitudes of society towards old age;

(ii) change entrenched practices towards compulsory retirement;

(iii) adjust employment patterns and create more job opportunities for older people;

(iv) enable older workers with reduced incomes to continue to lead a normal active life;

(v) provide medical examinations to monitor the physical and mental health of the older people;

(vi) foster greater filial piety and responsibility so that children and relaives will support and look after their parents and elders;

(vii) grant assistance and encouragement to charitable and religious organizations to set up homes for those aged people who cannot look after themselves and have no one to depend on;

(viii) consider legislation to require certain religious institutions to be licensed, and in so doing to stipulate that they must run homes for the aged as well as to ensure that all homes for the aged are properly run.

These Terms of Reference are comprehensive and hence the programmes of the Committee must attempt to cover every facet of the problems related to the increasing numbers of older people in our community. In the 1980 Census some 7.2% of the population are above the age of 60 years. Improvements to our economy, social welfare, and medical services have, raised life expectancy and by the year 2000 the over-60 age group will comprise more than 10% of the population.

Compulsory retirement requires a person to stop work at a cut-off age irrespective of his physical condition and competence to make further contributions in his job.,Continuing advances in medical science and technology will extend the life expectancy of many senior citizens to 80 years and beyond. The Committee will conduct studies on how our citizens should prepare for old age.

The ideal for the Committee will be to permit the average citizen not to remain a work-horse all his life, but to suggest that he should make plans on how and when he should slow down long before he is due to retire. At an appropriate stage in his life he should be able to decide that he need not necessarily put in the full 42 hours each week till he reaches 60 years, but rather that in his own long term interests he can work shorter hours or opt for a lesser work load. His surplus or spare hours can be spent on activities from which he derives joy and satisfaction or on making contributions to the community. Psychologically an active mind keeps an active body, while an active body in turn nurtures an active mind. A person in enforced idleness will decline rapidly in mind and body.

The Committee has laid down certain guidelines to get on with its work. It welcomes recommendations and representations from community and civic organizations, knowledgeable professionals and experts on the subject of old age, as well as from members of the public, on the general problems of the increasing numbers of older people in our society and also on the eight specific areas that I have outlined. Those who wish to put forward their views to the Committee can do so in writing or in the form of a memorandum.

Our citizens should be advised to prepare for old age long before they face the problems. In this respect the Committee will look into recommendations for improvements to our maternity and child welfare service, school health and preventive and public health services which cover the first of the three segments of a person's life span. During this segment of life from birth to the age of 18 years, the foundations of a person's physical well-being will be decided. Should adequate attention have been paid to child nutrition and welfare, immunization procedures and preventive measures against diseases to ensure healthy growth, and should proper physical education, training, and health education and physical exercises be encouraged in schools, then our citizens will at an early age form the habit of keeping physically fit throughout life.

The second segment covers the person's working life from the age of 19 to 55 or 60 years. During this period, the citizen's responsibilities will gradually increase as he forms his family, acquires a home, brings up and educates his children, and strives to improve his earnings to provide beyond the necessities of life. Should he be taught the virtues of filial piety, he would demonstrate this by his own example and should his three-tier family be living together, his children will have the benefits of a closely-knit entity.

As he approaches 50 years of age his children would have completed their education and obtained employment on their own. His responsibilities towards the family will begin to lessen and his burden becomes lighter. He can begin to plan in terms of the third segment of his life from 55 years and beyond.

The Committee's main concern is with this third segment of life when most of the problems of old age citizens can arise. If more preparations had been made in the earlier two segments, the chances are that the problems can be reduced to manageable proportions.

Our society is in the process of transition from the old to the new. Under the old dispensation, most of our people had to struggle very hard to earn low wages, to eke out a subsistence level of livelihood, to raise their children, and to maintain a family. There was not much time or money to spare to think in terms of providing for old age. Many worked up to 60 years and even beyond to keep body and soul together. Having suffered from the ravages of poverty, malnutrition, illness and disease in their early lives, many of our older citizens are at a stage of life when their need for medical, financial, and other welfare attention and assistance will increase in the next 20 years. The Committee will be investigating these areas to suggest how best attention and assistance should be provided.

Under the new dispensation, with the efforts of the Government in various fields of maternity and child welfare, better education, better employment opportunities, higher incomes, and better medical and social welfare services, life expectancy has been extended. But in our modern urbanized and industrialized society, increasing affluence has brought with it problems of pollution of various kinds, stress and strain both at home and in the workplace, increasing numbers of motor vehicles, and fast lifestyles as well as undesirable eating habits, drug addiction, etc. These have counter-acted the benefits of modern medical science and advances in technology, and today more and more of our people are suffering from serious often incurable illnesses long before they get to the third segment of life. These illnesses include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diseases of the respiratory system, and other new illnesses that are constantly being discovered by medical science, plus accidents on our roads, at the workplace, and at home. It may be necessary for the Committee to pay attention to these problems.

The Committee includes representatives from the NTUC, the Employer's Federation, the Chambers of Commerce, the Ministries of Health, Social Affairs, Trade and Industry, and Labour as well as well-known social workers. They will all help to identify the problems and make recommendations. However, the problems of the aged are not new or peculiar to Singapore. Hence, rather than reinventing the wheel, the Committee plans to seek advice, to collect information and to learn from the experiences of other countries like UK, US Australia, and Japan. These will go a long way towards assisting the Committee in its deliberations.

The experience of Japan in dealing with problems of their old age citizens may be of particular significance. Mr Wee Mon Cheng, our former Ambassador to Japan, can make invaluable contributions not only from his personal knowledge of the Japanese society but also to establish contacts to obtain information, official documents, and published materials of the Japanese experience.

Our senior consultant physicians in the Ministry of Health have been looking after many of our older people in the community. Their experience will be invaluable to the Committee not only on how best to deal with health problems but, more importantly, how to avoid or prevent them before they become very serious.

The Committee has set itself the target to complete its work in one year. Its recommendations will involve many Government Ministries and will require the cooperation of a wide range of public and private sector organizations including the NTUC, the Employers' Federation, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, professional and welfare associations, religious groups, and other community and civic organizations. The scope of the Committee's enquiry is so wide that it prefers not to spell out the specific areas where it would like recommendations, suggestions and assistance from the Government bodies, public organizations, community and civic groups, or for that matter from Members of Parliament and their constituencies. The Committee welcomes views and suggestions from those who are able to make representations to it and I can assure the hon. Member for Kampong Kembangan that the Committee will carefully study any representation that he may care to make.