Older Malaysians bagged the prize for having the lowest rate of sexual activity (with only 52 percent of Malaysians aged between 40 and 80 having had sex in the past 12 months) in a survey of 29 countries by Pfizer, producers of the anti-impotency drug Viagra?

Is the article Older Malaysians not interested in sex: survey (April 2) a belated April Fool's joke?

Are we to conclude that what older Malaysian men frustratingly cannot but perhaps fervently wish to do is perhaps sublimated to and vented by way of sexist remarks even in the august chamber of parliament that explains why a coalition of women's groups found it necessary to submit a three-page memorandum to the Dewan Rakyat speaker calling for greater sensitisation and equality within the House as reported in Mind your sexist remarks, parliamentarians told (April 2)?

Surely, the methodology of Pfizer's survey, especially as regards sampling of the 500 older men interviewed, deserves scrutiny as meticulously as that of the Independent Committee on Racial Segregation!

Maybe some of them interviewed were from old folks home with the rest widowed, divorced and obese (suffering from problems either of rejection by women or health such as hypertension and high cholesterol)!

The important question boils down to whether they are, relative to other nationals, simply not inclined to engage in such sexual activity or just cannot do.

If it were the former, then perhaps the women in this country should do some serious soul searching: maybe the younger women reject the older men while the older women prefer younger ones!

But if this were not the case s drive towards equality, border on male-bashing, which can undermine potency.

(On a more serious note, urban Malaysians do live in a competitive culture that implicates work-related stress. After a hard days work, many do make a beeline to pubs and watering holes to de-stress and thereafter be confronted with the problem of the brewer's droop!)

Or maybe it is simply due to physical health factors. Considering the variety of food available here that makes the country a gourmand haven, it is not surprising that many eat to obesity and suffer from related problems of hypertension and high cholesterol that in turn conduce to erectile dysfunction.

The one myth and misinformation that I don't believe is that ventured by Low Wah Yun, the Malaysian sex therapy specialist who released the results and said the lack of sexual activity among older Malaysians was partly due to the belief that "you shouldn't have sex when you're old".

In the first place, there is a redefinition of what is old. Based on unscientific survey of daily interaction, most men I know in the age category between 40 and 60 may consider themselves middle-age but hardly old.

Though they admit that their capacity for strenuous sexual activity and exertion has modestly declined somewhat, this has only made them more discerning in choice of partners rather than an avoidance of such activity altogether in the cultural belief that they should not engage in it because they are "old".

If there was really such a belief among older Malaysian men, where would the demand for Viagra pills be? (Here we assume it is the older men who want to engage in sex but cannot do it in the manner they feel adequate without Viagra that form the market for it).

It was earlier disclosed by Health Minister Chua Jui Meng in the Star (Nov 5) that middle-aged Malaysian men (grouped as "older" by Pfizer's survey) had the dubious distinction of being on a per capita basis the world's largest consumers of Viagra!

How could Pfizer, as one of the world largest producers of the anti-impotency drug Viagra sell so much of its product to older Malaysian men (who on per capita basis are one of the world's largest consumers of Viagra) and yet by the next breath conclude on the basis of their survey (of questionable methodology and sampling in my opinion) that older Malaysians have one of the world's lowest rate of sexual activity?

The two main racial groups in this country are Malays and Chinese.

Culture-wise, I doubt if there is any such belief among the Malay Malaysians that it is inappropriate for older men to engage in sex. How else would you account for the popularity of tongkat ali (a herbal aphrodisiac) believed to enhance sexual performance.

Among the Chinese Malaysians, it is difficult to attribute to them this so called cultural belief when those of same descent in mainland China have received no such cultural influence, judging from the findings of the same Pfizer's survey that worldwide "older Chinese (presumably in China) were the most sexually active, with a whopping 93 percent saying they had had sex in the past 12 months, followed by Italians at 83 percent".

I find that there is something in Pfizer's conclusions that is very contradictory to our local experience.