No country for old politicians – set term limits for all

 

Should our prime minister serve no longer than 10 years? That’s a big question, assuming we’ve agreed on whether there should be any term limits at all in politics.

And if there are term limits for prime ministers, why 10 years and not 8 (the term limit for US presidents – at least for now!) or 12 or any other number?

While you ponder that, let me throw in another term limit idea: nobody should serve as an MP past the retirement age which applies to the rest of the country’s population!

Politics is no place for old people, even if it has been so, for far too long.

I’m not young myself, and if these proposals become the law, I’ll never become a prime minister or even a MP, which has been my ambition since … never!

Constitutional bind

Putting a term limit on the prime minister’s post will affect the king’s constitutional prerogative to appoint a prime minister whom he deems to have the support of the Dewan Rakyat. Unfortunately, our Dewan Rakyat loves supporting one of their own in their 60s, 70s or even 90s as prime minister.

If they do support one such person well after the term limit, we could have a constitutional crisis on our hands. That’s not good. But this is actually not such a radical idea. After all, it’s been around even back in the days when it felt like we were under a prime-minister-for-life!

Back then, the joke was that Malaysia was a weird country because we have an elected king whose term lasts only five years, whereas we have a prime minister who rules forever.

Anyway, not everybody is in favour of term limits, and certainly age limits, too, should it ever come to that. Their main argument is that we’d be losing a lot of experience and wisdom from people who have long served the nation, be it as an MP or as the PM. Give me a break.

Age-old wisdom?

Good luck in trying to make the case that their age and experience in politics have been a boon to the country. You can’t. Whatever good things some leaders did must be weighed against how much they’ve also looted or destroyed while they’re in power. We’ve certainly experienced more of the latter rather than the former.

So, my number one argument for term limitations is this: don’t give politicians too much time to develop bad habits. Power corrupts, and the longer you wield it, the more likely you’ll be corrupted.

Argument number two: being great yesterday doesn’t mean you’ll be great tomorrow. Increasingly, the opposite is true. Business leadership reflects that. Today’s businesses are increasingly being run by young people, while political leadership unfortunately still remains the province of sclerotic geriatrics.

Increasingly, it is the young ones who seem to be creating the future, whether good or bad, while the old ones promise to guide us through this future they themselves barely comprehend.

Make way for new blood

I’m not arguing that youth trumps age in all instances, but it’s the young who will inherit the world. So that’s my third argument.

The rest of us have had our moments. Soon we’ll be six feet under or in an urn somewhere. Time to go and enjoy whatever years we still have in us.

Remember, we have retirement ages that apply to most people in full-time jobs. Many salaried people retire at 60 or thereabout, even if some are still fit and healthy enough to continue working.

Sure, some people – those who are self-employed – continue working past these ages. But political leaders aren’t self-employed. We employ them, and we don’t want anybody to feel as if they own our country and can run it forever. We’re their bosses, not the other way around.

So that’s my argument number four. I’d certainly agree not all old people are bad or unsuitable. But if they’re so inclined, let them find some other ways to serve the country.

Corrupting influence

Argument number five: it’s not as if I’m asking for our country to be run by millennials or Gen Zs. In all likelihood, you’d have to be in your 40s or 50s before you get into Parliament or become a minister, whether prime or otherwise. Those are the Goldilock ages – not too young nor too old, but just nice.

Honestly, I can’t think of any politician who got better the longer they stayed in power. It tends to be the opposite. Apart from growing more corrupt, they also tend to start dynasties, using their many years in power to groom their children or cronies.

And now, to nobody’s surprise, religion and race, apart from the aforementioned royalty, are also in the picture. We’re hearing arguments about God’s will etc, which seems to assume some prior knowledge of what He wants.

We’re not going against God’s will. He never willed any particular leader or party to lead, regardless of what these people claim. There’s nothing in Islam that forbids us to put in place the best solution we know on how to run our earthly affairs.

Human failings

We’ve seen how the ambition to be in power forever can hurt our nation. That’s a human failing that has happened all through human history. There should be nothing to stop us making changes to try out new things going forward.

We do our best, and leave the rest to God. But doing our best must entail rigorously debating important facts and perspectives, and agreeing that checks and balances are needed in this messy affairs of human politics.

We must continually have new blood coming through wanting to serve the nation. The religious conservatives who want to bring God into the picture, with their reading on what they see as God’s will or command, are just engaged in self-serving efforts to tilt the debate unfairly to their side.

Stick by the evidence

After all, the evidence doesn’t support the notion that such people, supposedly blessed by God, are good at leadership in politics. In Malaysia, such leadership has never shown it could well manage the states and the country, if you take a dispassionate look at the health and quality of the societies their leadership had produced.

I’m tired of seeing the same faces and names in politics over and over again. Yes, some of them are good and principled, but they’re clearly in the minority. Most are just willing to sacrifice everything, including the rakyat, to achieve their political ambitions, even if it destroys the nation.

Some limits are necessary, and even good. I totally agree on limiting prime ministers to a maximum of 10 years of service, and I’m certainly happy to propose that, at a suitable age, politicians be made to retire from public service, whether they want it or not. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.