Jacinda Ardern (42) announced resignation from the post stating she did not have enough in the tank later quietly and swiftly succeeded by Chris Hipkins (44), Minister of Education. From having baby in the period of office to facing the tough situation like Covid pandemic and Christchurch Mosque shootings, her term has been a roller-coaster ride. Today we are not here to discuss the report Card whether Ardern was successful or not, let’s leave it to mainstream media. What I find fascinating in the story is the retirement age, it’s just 42 years. How often is this the case in Politics🤔🤔?
Let’s try to get a clear picture by observing Top 10 big economies of the world and their leadership. In time of publication of this newsletter, Average age of leaders of these countries is 59.6 and if we exclude European leaders from the list, Average age will climb to as high as 66.14.
Rishi Sunak (42); Prime Minister of UK, is the youngest one in the list while Biden (80); President of US is the oldest. Another unsurprising thing is that there is only one female leader among these great economies i.e. Giorgia Meloni (46); Prime Minister of Italy.
It is a rear sight to see a youth leadership in a nation even more if the gender is female. World politics has always been dominated by man who have crossed 60 or 65 years of age. Here I am not trying to discredit any benefits that old leadership brings to the table, what I am asking for is mere representation of female as well as youth in the global level.
In this Era of Tech, it is more important than ever before to connect the youth with politics and bury the generation gap. Technology is developing in a rapid pace and some big tech individuals are able to act as an independent entity in the society. This is wholly because we were unsuccessful to build an advance regulatory setup for the technological fields. Our system now seems like a pistol handed over to driver (those uncapable of operating it). But tech is just an example of a larger picture, our various fields have transcended to amazing level just in a decade, but the leadership has same kind of character for more than 3 decades. The need is not just about a youth face rather about a person who can adapt changing dynamics of the world.
The issues such as climate change, water shortage and so on had serious implications in 2022 and the impact is going to grow exponentially year by year. But our traditional leadership simply ignores it or pretend it is not an issue. It may not have a serious impact in short run but in long it will. So, I believe it is high time we provide youth with reputable representation on table that determines future of their generation and world as whole in coming decades.
Whether Ardern retirement was due to political backlash or not is another issue. What we learn from the event is that it is possible for leaders to leave their post If they believe it is the time to. But the problem is the rear occurrence of such events. People in power always tend to consolidate their power rather than diversifying power and later handing over to the other generation. It becomes a barrier for new ideas, leadership as well as inclusiveness and affect adaptability to world dynamics.
What Jacinda’s move signal is an alternate way to end a political Carrer; it always does not have to loss in election, scandals or court case. Hoping characteristics of leadership changes, ideas of youth will be welcomed and those who will be affected by the decision will have opportunity to make the decision rather than some political elites.