Penguang: Proper strategy vital in addressing rural-urban ageing population migration

MIRI (Sept 3): Reversing the rural-urban migration with strategic policies and economic pull factors should be the step forward in addressing the issue of ageing population in rural areas of Sarawak.

Deputy Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government Datuk Dr Penguang Manggil says this is a long haul step, which will take time to pan out in Sarawak, including his Marudi constituency.

He was asked about his plan to address the ageing population issue in Marudi, which had been identified as one of the 11 ageing districts in Malaysia.

According to National Policy for Older Persons (DWEN), ageing is when those aged 60 years and above comprise 15 per cent of the total population, based on the ‘Current Population Estimates, Administrative District, 2024’ published by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

In a statement, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the department had identified Beluru, Telang Usan and Mukah in Sarawak as among these 11 ageing districts.

The report presented the population estimates at the state and administrative district levels for 2023 and 2024.

Adding on, Penguang said to meet the needs and issues faced in his rural constituency, the government needed to help facilitate the reversal of rural-urban migration.

“Our strategy is narrow the urban-rural gap by providing good rural road connectivity, enhancing the provision of treated water and electricity supply as well as the Internet coverage and services, and promoting rural agriculture activities especially those pertaining to high value crops with short gestation periods,” he said.

The state deputy minister, who came from a longhouse setting, said it was imperative to build new rural schools and clinics and upgrade existing ones, so as to provide the rural folks with better access to quality education and healthcare, ‘as good as those enjoyed by their urban counterparts’.

“Once all these (facilities and amenities) are in place, the rural-urban migration can be checked, or even reversed.

“These may take a while to achieve, but once the situation is normalised, many people who are residing in towns and cities would prefer to stay and work, or commute from their respective ‘kampungs’ (villages),” said Penguang, highlighting the lower rentals and cost of living as among the benefits of living in the rural areas that had more or less ‘the same comfort as living in the town areas’.

“This is very noticeable when many of those from the younger generations in towns are coming back to build their longhouses in the rural areas.”