As the US President Joe Biden announced his candidacy for the next US Presidential elections, the US market has been heated on the debate on the transfer of generations.
Biden is now 80-year-old, and if he is re-elected president for another term, he will hold the highest office until the age of 86. Thus, the US people have started about the gerontocracy or system run by the elderly.
While being age-old the human beings face forgetfulness and low engagements. It means the person holding formal positions could not be shown the activeness.
On the other side, former US president Donald Trump has also shown interest to run for the White House post from the Republican Party which has also reached 76 years.
However, if going on counting an eighty-one-year-old Mitchell McConnell, the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate, the upper house of the US Parliament has also not shown any symptoms of his retirement.
In the same way, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is 72 years old and still remains active in politics.
But for the record, there are some leaders who quit politics somehow a few months earlier, including former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein who are all octogenarians.
There was also a voice raised by a 51-year-old Nikki Haley, who ran for the presidency, saying that politicians over 75 should be made to take a test to prove their mental capacity.
In a survey conducted by CNBC last December, 70 percent of Americans said that Biden should not have run for re-election. Young people think that America is falling behind because of the elderly.
The oldest national leader is Paul Biya of Cameroon, who was born in 1933 and took office more than 40 years ago.
Brazilian President Lula is 77, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 72, Russian President Putin is 70, Chinese President Xi Jinping is 69, Turkish President Erdogan is also 69. Japanese PM Kishida is 65, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is 62. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned 51 years old.
Countries such as Saudi Arabia, France, Britain, Italy, New Zealand, and Chile have chief executives who are between 40-45 years old.
In Nepal, President Ram Chandra Poudyal is 80 years old. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda is 68 years old. Chairman of Nepali Congress and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is 76 years old. CPN-UML Chairman and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is 71 years old. Madhav Kumar Nepal is also near to 70 years old. Jhalanath Khanal has crossed over 70. These leaders have been enjoying political posts since the restoration of democracy in 1990. So, voices have been raised that need to change these faces from the politics.
In an article published in Newsweek magazine Michael Novograz and William Waterson argued saying “today’s elderly politicians cannot understand the pain of the current generation.”
“It was due to the fact that they did not have to face such problems when they were young,” it said.
Therefore, the writers stressed that young politicians should be encouraged in their place.
