PETALING JAYA: Despite the country heading towards becoming an ageing nation – with an estimation that over six million will be 65 and older by 2040 – an inadequate safety net is provided for seniors in yesterday’s tabling of Budget 2024, say many experts.
The general consensus was that the allocation was not enough, particularly for golden agers who are in need of help, finances and facilities.
Association for Residential Aged Care Operators (
) president Delren Terrence Douglas called the budget “a great disappointment”.
“We have government departments coming out with statistics to say that we are heading towards an ageing nation; yet other agencies are not in tune with this reality,” he said.
Douglas pointed out an example: the Industrial Building Allowance (of up to 10% of the total building cost) for Health Ministry-approved private nursing homes would, at best, benefit only about 10% of the country’s senior care homes.
“If this allowance is only for ministry-approved homes, then this would only benefit 22 or 23 homes.
“The majority of the country’s 1,700 to 2,000-odd care centres are licensed by the Welfare Department,” he said.
What would have been helpful, he said, was addressing the licensing difficulties these centres face, because registering their homes would improve government data on seniors under the care of others.
“The amount of red tape we face is tremendous, due to different requirements by the various local councils,” he said.
He added that the country was facing a shortage of trained caregivers and there was no standard syllabus to train them.
He said there was also a need to help those who have to send their parents to these centres.
“Many cannot take care of their parents at home and cannot afford the fees,” he said.
Institute of Ageing and Professional Care director Assoc Prof Dr Edward Foo asked for clarification on the Industrial Building Allowance.
“It is unclear if the allowance is only for Health Ministry-registered institutions, or does it include Welfare Department-registered institutions?
“The latter are normally the ones that need upgrading.
“Giving the allowance wider coverage is a smart strategy to get unrecorded elderly care homes registered with the government,” he said.
Gerontologist Lily Fu said that there should have been an allocation for programmes to raise awareness about the prevention of diseases affecting seniors.
“Prevention will help ease the financial burden of families and the government.
“The funding for healthcare should also be allocated for building more public nursing homes, given that there are only two, nationwide,” she said.
Malaysian Association for Social Care Professionals and Homes secretary-general Dr Melody Ang said the allocation for Madani training to reskill retirees and the elderly is a good initiative.
“I hope the allocation will help ease our budget constraints, because currently, we have to underprice our courses by 50% to 70%.
“We would also like to recommend that the target group be widened to include seniors’ family members because many of them – often women – who are caregivers of the elderly, do so without any training,” she said.
Budget 2024: Tax relief for new skills and lifestyles, RM110mil for 150 local authority areas
KUALA LUMPUR: A number of taxation reform measures will be implemented next year to expand the country's revenue base and at the same time not burden the majority of the people.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the tax collected by the government is one of the lowest in Asean at 11.8 per cent of gross domestic product compared to Singapore (12.6 per cent) and Thailand (16.4 per cent).
Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, said the government plans to increase the service tax rate to 8.0 per cent instead of 6.0 per cent and this does not include services such as food and beverages, and telecommunications.
"The government will also expand the scope of taxable services to include logistic services, brokerage, underwriting and karaoke," he said when presenting Budget 2024 in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Anwar said the government will enforce the implementation of capital gains tax for the disposal of unlisted shares by local companies based on the net profit at a rate of 10 per cent from March 1, 2024.
The government is also considering the exemption of capital gains tax on the disposal of shares related to certain activities such as approved initial public offering (IPO), internal restructuring and venture capital companies subject to specified conditions.
Anwar said the government will enact new legislation to tax certain luxury goods such as jewellery and watches based on the threshold value of the goods. - Bernama
Birds fly as smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Oct. 10, 2023. Photo:Xinhua
#Opinion: When will Israel launch a ground attack on Gaza? How will the next battle be fought? Fundamentally, Israel aims to fight a brutal military encirclement, while Hamas seeks to wage a political war, attempting to leverage their sacrifices and those of the Palestinian population in Gaza to galvanize international pressure against Israel, writes
Chinese public possesses very extensive calm and rationality over Israeli-Palestinian conflict
When will Israel launch a ground attack on Gaza? How will the next battle be fought? Will there be a modern "massacre"?
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, stated firmly on Wednesday that every Hamas member is "a dead man." And the Israeli military is intensifying its ground preparations while conducting airstrikes. Over 300,000 newly recruited Israeli reserve troops have gathered at the Gaza border. The exact number of Hamas military personnel is unknown, but it was estimated to be around 30,000 in 2021.
Gaza is a narrow strip of land, approximately 40 kilometers long from north to south, with a width ranging from six to 10 kilometers. It is bordered by Israeli-controlled areas and the Mediterranean Sea, with only the southern part adjacent to Egypt. The population of Gaza is densely concentrated, with approximately 2.3 million people. If hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops enter simultaneously, it will inevitably result in a large number of civilian casualties.
The Israeli military's capabilities have been regarded as "mythical" in the past, while the Hamas forces have been seen as a ragtag group. However, in this surprise attack on Israel, Hamas unexpectedly demonstrated strong organizational and tactical abilities. They miraculously managed to keep their actions a secret, which prevented Israeli and US intelligence agencies from knowing about the large-scale surprise attack Hamas had been preparing.
The Israeli army is currently assembling its ground forces. However, they haven't launched an attack yet. This could be attributed to several reasons. First, the Israeli military might want to continue airstrikes for some time to decrease the difficulty of a land assault. Second, they could be secretly negotiating the release of hostages with Hamas. According to media reports, Hamas is holding at least 150 hostages taken from Israel on Saturday. Third, the Israeli military is intensifying the development of specific attack routes and urban warfare methods. Finally, prior to the battle, they are conducting urban warfare training for newly enlisted reserve men. In addition to these factors, I believe another key element is that Israel has cut off power to Gaza, causing the nights to be pitch black. The Israeli military could be waiting for Gaza's backup power supply to run out, rendering all smartphones in Gaza incapacitated and unable to be charged. When the Israeli military attacks, the spread of violent recordings will be drastically reduced.
The Israeli military has an unrivaled edge. However, eliminating Hamas entirely will not be easy. Despite the fact that the Israeli military has more troops and advanced weapons, Gaza is analogous to the chaotic urban-rural peripheral zones of China's major cities a few years ago. Hamas is familiar with every location, whereas the Israeli military is not. In the 1982 Israeli attack on Lebanon to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Israeli military's goal was to surround the PLO fighters led by former PLO chairman Yasser Arafat. Eventually, the entire PLO was forced into a small area and agreed to withdraw from Lebanon, so both sides did not engage in a real all-out battle. But this time is different, as the Israeli military explicitly aims to eliminate Hamas, and the entire battle will be a fight to the death.
But how can Hamas be eradicated? Hamas fighters' positions are interwoven with residential areas. If Israel conducts methodical urban warfare against Hamas fighters, it will ultimately result in a close battle. Hamas fighters will be able to murder Israeli soldiers at close range. The Israeli military will sustain massive losses. If they take a different approach and flatten entire neighborhoods, as long as Hamas fighters remain inside, Israeli military losses will be decreased, but that would be no different from a "massacre." Israel is already enraged, but if "massacre" becomes the international public opinion's characterization and accusation, the pressure Israel faces in terms of public opinion will be qualitatively different from today.
When it comes to urban warfare, it's a complex political issue in the context of modern ethical constraints. In Ukraine, when Russian forces targeted cities like Mariupol, they opened humanitarian corridors for civilians to evacuate, leaving only military personnel to engage in combat on the streets. However, in Gaza, the population has nowhere to go, and some of those whose homes have been destroyed seek refuge in schools and refugee facilities run by the UN. Unfortunately most remain confined to their homes. Some politicians are advocating, "crushing and flattening Gaza." If this is what is to come, it would likely trigger a tsunami of international condemnation. Despite the potential disruption of communications of Gaza residents, a humanitarian catastrophe in the area is unlikely to remain hidden.
Hamas' tactics will be tied to Israel's dilemma. On the surface, by launching this attack against Israel at the cost of pushing themselves into a corner, Hamas seem prepared for the worst but hopeful of an escape route in this dire situation. If Israel were to "flatten" the city, Hamas anticipates an eruption of international public opinion in their favor, providing a protective shield. They do not genuinely believe they would be entirely eradicated from the Gaza region.
If a full-scale urban battle ensues, substantial casualties among Gaza's population will be predictable. I recently saw a Chinese scholar with extensive knowledge of Israeli and Palestinian affairs comment in a WeChat group, saying that he would not be surprised if the Palestinian death toll in Gaza reaches 100,000.
The exact timing and nature of any ground offensive are yet to be seen. However, fundamentally, Israel aims to fight a brutal military encirclement, while Hamas seeks to wage a political war, attempting to leverage their sacrifices and those of the Palestinian population in Gaza to galvanize international pressure against Israel. Israel's military advancement and the targeting of more Hamas members and ordinary Palestinians do not necessarily lead to victory but could reach a critical point where it triggers a significant shift in the public opinion and political situation landscape. Israel must resist such a turn, and Hamas is determined to hold out until that moment. This is the real battleground in the Gaza ground conflict.
Furthermore, it's worth noting that due to changing demographics in the US, support for Israel is not as monolithic as it used to be. The only Palestinian-American representative, Rashida Tlaib, has publicly called for an end to US support for Israel and expressed condolences for "the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today and every day." While President Joe Biden has publicly supported Israel's right to self-defense, there have been reports that he advised Netanyahu that democracies are more secure when act according to "the rule of law." Additionally, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday tweeted that he "encouraged Turkey's advocacy for a cease-fire," which he later quietly deleted after receiving criticism from the Republican Party. Earlier, the US Office of Palestinian Affairs had tweeted shortly after the outbreak of the conflict, urging all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks, emphasizing that "terror and violence solve nothing."
As the conflict intensifies, the evolving international public opinion landscape deserves attention. The speed and intensity with which this new dynamic forms will determine whether Israel can truly "flatten" Gaza or if its campaign against Hamas becomes a new "unfinished project."
The author is a Chinese media professional. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
As the casualties keep climbing in the Gaza Strip, Chinese observers warned a humanitarian crisis in the region is unavoidable if the fighting between Hamas and Israel doesn't stop. The observers also said such a crisis, if caused by atrocities, could trigger a public opinion explosion and reverse the political situation at certain tipping point. At this juncture, the US, which can exert real influence on Israel, is urged to pressure Israel to cool down its offensive in Gaza, instead of further stoking tension in the Middle East.
