Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter

Philip Mascoll, president of the Jamaica Diaspora Canada Foundation. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Some members of the Ja-maican Diaspora are calling for the introduction of a mandatory retirement age for politicians to ensure that new blood is continually injected into the political process.

They are arguing that politicians should be required to retire at a stipulated age, in the same way that civil servants are called upon to exit the workforce when they hit retirement age.

A similar argument was raised recently about the candidacy of the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, John McCain. One pundit argued that it was grossly unfair to ask federal employees to retire at a certain age then put a man in charge of the federal government, who has already passed that age of retirement.

Philip Mascoll, immediate past president of the Jamaican Diaspora, Canada, did not mince his words when he told our news team that some of our politicians are over the hill and should call it quits.

A problem

"Look at our political leaders, they are too damn old!" said Mascoll who turns 60 this year. The retired journalist added that age was not just an issue in the local political arena, but was a problem "throughout the Jamaican mosaic".

Mascoll was emphatic in his pronouncement that there should be a stipulated age of retirement for politicians. "Absolutely, if I am a business person and the retirement age is set at 65, why should the politician not be required to retire? I think there should be a mandatory retirement age.

"Come out and let new blood come in! Change is a great thing," he said. "We have politicians here and in North America who are going to finish their term, pass retirement age ... (and) many of them will run again."

This, he said, is not encouraging to young people, who might perceive representational politics as an old-boys' club.

On the other hand, Alisha Fuller-Armah, 22, who is approximately a month away from completing her Master of Philosophy at Cambridge University, did not agree with the implementation of a mandatory retirement age for politicians.

"Age isn't the most relevant or pressing issue ... capability is a more salient issue," reasoned the young academic who is of Jamaican descent and up until recently, was involved with the diaspora movement in the United Kingdom.

Fuller-Armah believes performance and the people's confidence should be the determining factors.

'Reasonable pension'

While Robert Pickersgill, chairman of the Opposition People's National Party (PNP), did not say he supported the notion of having one law for the Medes and another for the Persians, he certainly does not believe that politicians should be held to the same retirement standard as civil servants.

According to Pickersgill, civil servants have security of tenure, which politicians do not enjoy, plus public-sector workers also get a "reasonable pension".

"This question can't be answered just so; it must be looked upon with objectivity ... . The comparison is not on all fours," he said.

However, the PNP chairman was open to the idea of allowing all views to contend on the matter.

"Let us put it on the table and debate this thing ... (It is) not really a level playing field," he added.

Efforts to get a comment from Karl Samuda and James Robertson, general secretary and deputy leader, respectively, of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), were unsuccessful.

At the same time, Mascoll told The Gleaner that there was an aggressive push to remedy the issue of age in the executive of the Jamaican Diaspora from Canada.

Big step up

He pointed out that close to half the Canadian contingent at last month's staging of the diaspora conference were members of their Future Leaders Movement, made up of young people. That was a big step up, because in 2006, only 13 members of the Canadian contingent were young people, while in 2004, at the inaugural, staging of the conference, not a single young person was included in their team.

He also batted for maximum term limits, arguing that the two-term limit placed on presidents of the United States of America was a good concept to adopt and apply to our heads of government.

Mascoll also revealed that within a year or two, the bulk of the executive posts within the Jamaican Diaspora, Canada group, would be occupied by persons under 40 years old. He is projecting that a similar trend will take place across the diaspora within the same time frame. "In about two years, the bulk of the leadership will be under 40 years."