Amend the Constitution to accommodate term limits
THE EDITOR, Sir: THE PERSONS who are responsible for the governance of the country are not being very fair to the general public about the age of retirement of people. They set rules and regulations for teachers and other public-sector workers, and even when their health fades and they are almost walking with sticks, they fail to want to go home and rest the body.
Currently, teachers are going home at 60 years old, and in short order they will be going home at age 65 years old. Why is it that House Speaker Pearnel Charles Snr fails to recognise that it is prime time for him to go home and play with his grandchildren? The angry utterance of Member of Parliament (MP) Charles is rather disgraceful when he actually says, “So what if a 500-year-old wants to be MP?” These politicians feel that they are indispensable.
A person of age 82 years old like House Speaker Charles has passed his age of optimum usefulness as a parliamentarian and should abdicate from his high office. A younger person should be given the chance to come with more modern, up-todate, technical and creative ideas. There should definitely be an age limit for persons who are servants of the people to hold office before they become irrelevant, redundant and obsolete.
After age 65, all politicians should pack their bags and move on, because I am quite certain that they are not doing more patriotic work than many unsung heroes we have as public servants. Public servant Bruce Golding actually called for an end to this tyranny of these despotic politicians by advocating for time limits.
Some want to hang on to power forever, if they had their way, like Minister Charles in his tirade last week.
No one should die on the office like US World War II President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who actually caused the 22nd Amendment of the American Constitution, in that no president could hold office for more than two terms again.
We could tweak ours to suit and match our lifestyle as Jamaicans, by saying we cannot go beyond 65 years old for all politicians, no matter the growth they have engendered during their tenure. We should amend the Constitution to accommodate these important changes for the total development of our people.