The South China Morning Post reported 91 year old Mr. Lim saying “I wanted to go home. When I stayed with my son and his wife, I only got scoldings, complaints. I am old, I forget many things, but they will always be upset even if it is a small thing. Once they left me at home and disappeared for three days. Later I found out they went on a holiday. Nobody told me.”

 

Mr. Lim is a classic case of elder abuse, a form of domestic violence rarely talked about, with societal focus on intimate partner violence or child abuse. Sadly, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates one in six older adults is a victim of abuse and neglect, equating to 141 million people globally. Locally, it’s reported one in 20 elderlies face abuse.

 

It comes in variations, including physical abuse, for instance, a caretaker hitting an eldery woman’s head at a nursing home, or a mother being beaten with a broom by her daughter. Emotional abuse where 15 elderly men locked up in an illegally-run old folks home were threatened when they disobeyed. Thankfully, the Domestic Violence Act 1994 (DVA), along with the Penal Code, protects them from physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, defining the group as incapacitated adults. However, these issues continue to persist. The problem lies in reporting, with every reported case, between five to 10 cases are unreported. Families are ashamed of public perception and are keen on keeping it internal. Some are reluctant on account of their love for their children and grandchildren. In external cases, healthcare workers may not be trained to detect abuse or would not want to risk getting into legal problems and losing their license. 

 

Another factor for elders’ abuse is the multitude of unregistered old folks' homes. As per the Care Centres Act 1993 (CCA), registration puts care centres under the purview of the Social Welfare Department thus allows proper inspection and control of these centers. Section 5(2) of 

the CCA already prohibits non-registration yet it still occurs, leading to these elders’ harm. Incidents like a caretaker abusing an elderly woman by grabbing the back of her shirt and slapping her repeatedly, or a nursing home in Kajang was burnt down resulting in 5 casualties. Another case in Kuala Lumpur where the elderlies were left in squalid conditions without running water for months, living among rubbish, old clothes, discarded boxes, strewn plastic bottles, and a broken toilet. Albeit registration does not automatically stop abuse, evident by nursing home caretakers drugging their residents with sleeping pills for easier maintenance, it certainly reduces the likelihood of ill-treatment.

 

The trait of filial piety is also on the decline with most families separating themselves from said traditional Asian value as they migrate or extend their nucleus family via marriage, forcing them to send their parents to a nursing home. Another cause includes being financially constrained, incapable of caring for the family’s elder members. Unfortunately, this type of neglect and abandonment are not mentioned in the DVA, albeit the well known symptoms of the empty nest syndrome.

 

The DVA also excludes itself from situations of financial exploitation. Regrettably, the Prevent Elder Abuse and Neglect (PEACE) study by University Malaya displayed financial abuse to be the most prevalent among the elder victims, ranging from forging the elderly's signature, coercing them to sign over title rights, and duping them to allow the abuser to manipulate the elder's assets and monies. Senior citizens are already easy targets for financial scam artists who are strangers, what more for family members. There are reports of elderlies being abandoned by their families after robbing them of their money, with one lady claiming her son to have kicked her out after taking her money. Lim Kim Hua v Ho Chui Lan & anor is a prime example, where the Court held the transfer of a part of a shophouse to be null and void after the Court found that her granddaughter abused this relationship of reliance and exerted undue influence.

 

A lack of clarity on guidelines on handling elder abuse is another cause, according to Prof Dr Noran Naqiah Hairi, a University Malaya lecturer from the Department of Social and 

Preventive Medicine. The absence of precise law is leaving doctors, social workers, and other frontline responders clueless in this fight. This was concurred by D Rajbans Singh, a consulting geriatrician.

 

The above listed issues may be beginning with making elder abuse reporting mandatory for certain groups of people akin to the United States where all states have some form of mandated elder abuse reporting law. Doctors, nurses, home health care providers, and nursing home staff members must report any form of domestic abuse faced by the senior citizens under their care. This would also require these officers to be trained to identify signs of abuse. It should not be mandatory for the victim themselves, as it would be counterproductive to punish them when they are already subject to abuse. This would take the burden off the older generation from reporting their loved ones, which is understandably difficult. This may be codified in Act 521 as a proviso, requiring all domestic abuse to be reported. 

 

The current law on registration of care centres requires better enforcement, with the establishment of a specific body tasked with identifying illegal centres, under the Welfare Department. Perhaps the aim and objectives of the Act can also be expanded to include protection towards welfare of the elderlies and the continuous quality improvements of the centres. 

 

The late Dato’ Seri Utama Karpal Singh’s suggestion of having a Maintenance of Parents Act identical to Singapore’s must be echoed. The legislation gives senior citizens older than 60, who are unable to maintain themselves, the right to sue their children for maintenance, with unfilial children fined or imprisoned. Maldives possesses a similar approach in their Family Act 2000 where Section 57 makes it mandatory for children to maintain their parents basic needs, like food and shelter, to the extent financially possible for them. Another enactment must be made to curtail monetary abuse, akin to the United Kingdom’s Mental Capacity Act 2005 which enables one to draw up Lasting Powers of Attorney which can dictate matters relating to: property and financial affairs; and/or healthcare and personal affairs. 

 

With all these laws in existence, it would be wise for our lawmakers to legislate one piece of legislation covering the whole ambit of elder abuse. During the rule of the Pakatan Harapan Government, there was talk of an Act which would have supposedly done that. Alas, our political climate, although far from the likes of Afghanistan or Syria, has temporarily flattened the proposal. Perhaps the current government may look further into this issue and provide a more well oiled plan. A golden solution, one might say, for those living out their golden years.