Hunting for a place to sit down

KUALA LUMPUR: I was with my mother at a shopping complex recently when a woman who seemed to be in her late 50s approached me to ask where I had purchased the walking stick seat that my mother was using.

I had earlier noticed the woman stealing a glance at the multi-functional walking stick several times. She was waiting for her son to pick her up, she told me, adding that she had been meaning to get one of those walking sticks for herself but did not know where they were available.

“I’ve searched for it in many places but couldn’t find it. I think I’ll tell my son to buy one for me so that I can take it with me whenever I go out,” she said.

The walking stick seat is not exactly new in the market. It is actually a walking stick that can be opened up to serve as a comfortable seat, making it a very useful accessory for senior citizens to carry with them when they go out shopping or visiting places where public seating is limited.

Many elderly Muslims also make use of this implement to perform their daily prayers. It is, in fact, a compulsory fixture in any household with senior citizens.

Listening to the woman at the shopping complex grumbling about how difficult it was to locate an outlet that sold the multi-functional walking stick, I could not help smiling as I recalled how I myself had to search high and low for one.

My mother had been pressing me to get one for her but I could not find it at any of those pharmacies and supermarkets that I had combed.

Finally, I found one at a newly-opened pharmacy in Taman Melawati, here. I advised the woman to visit that particular pharmacy as I had noticed that it stocked a wide range of multifunctional walking sticks.

“Aunty, that store has various types – some are rather heavy and the seat is quite high and seems unstable,” I told her.

“The one that I bought is quite light and it serves as a handy walking stick, as well as a stable chair to sit on.” The woman thanked me for the information and before she left, she said: “I really need that walking stick because I’m old and feel tired after walking a few steps. It will be nice to have a portable chair so that I can sit down whenever I want. You know, nowadays shopping complexes provide very few seats for people to sit,” she complained.

I realised how right she was about the limited seats available at shopping malls, especially in the newly opened or renovated ones.

For sure, their decision to provide fewer seating facilities is an inconvenience to not only senior citizens but the younger ones as well. The situation used to be different previously.

I remember a supermarket close to where I lived in Ampang that provided ample seating for shoppers and their families who wanted to take a breather after all that shopping.

There were even seats situated close to the cash counters where people could sit whilst waiting for their family members to pay for their purchases.

However, all those seats have since been removed and the supermarket management has moved them to the far end of the floor where the toilets are located.

Well, it seems like the management had decided to follow the current market trend of letting out all available space to maximise profits – at the expense of public seating.

So, these days if you get tired whilst shopping, you have no choice but to wait patiently for a vacant seat or ‘steal’ a seat at a restaurant or food court. In view of the limited seating available at shopping complexes, the walking stick seat has become a must-have accessory for senior citizens.

“Our surroundings are not so environmentally friendly and take no heed of the well-being of our senior citizens,” observed Dr Jariah Masud, a senior research fellow at the Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing at Universiti Putra Malaysia.

She said based on a mobility study carried out by the university, there was a lack of public facilities to meet the needs of senior citizens.

“It’s important for shopping centres, office buildings, recreation parks and theme parks to provide more facilities for the elderly. This has become all the more pertinent now as Malaysia is now heading towards becoming an ageing nation,” she said.

The United Nations has projected that Malaysia will become an ageing nation by 2030 when 15 per cent of its population is aged 60 and above. Jariah said besides providing adequate seating in public places, the squatting toilets must also be replaced with sitting toilets.

She is right. I have noticed that the washroom facilities at many commercial centres, mosques, surau, petrol kiosks and highway rest and recreation (R&R) areas provide more squatting toilets than sitting ones.

This often results in long queues forming outside the sitting toilets because it is also the preferred choice of the younger generation. Senior citizens, particularly those suffering from knee pain, have no choice but to use sitting toilets.

Bone and joint specialist Dr Shahnun Anwar Azmi has been quoted as saying in a news report that almost 80 per cent of people aged 50 and above suffer from knee pain.

I remember an occasion when I stopped at a rest area to use the toilet on my way to Penang.

I came across an elderly woman who not only had great difficulty climbing up several steep steps to get to the washroom but found to her dismay that it did not have a single sitting toilet.

Understanding her predicament, one of the janitors on duty there advised the woman to relieve herself while standing.

This incident would not have taken place if the planners had been more aware of their social responsibility and taken into consideration the special needs of senior citizens when designing and building the facilities. — Bernama

(This commentary is the personal opinion of the writer)