PETER Bunting’s call last week for term limits on leadership in the People’s National Party (PNP) is not a new idea inside the Opposition party.

The proposal was actually first made in 2001 by the PNP Youth Organisation (PNPYO) in an interview with theJamaica Observer.

Bunting made the argument last Thursday night at a town hall meeting staged by the Jamaica Theological Seminary under the theme ‘The PNP Then And Now — Matters’.

He told his audience that the constitution of the PNP provides annual opportunities for reaffirming or replacing officers through re-election.

“In practice, however, any attempt to exercise this democracy is unwelcome. There has not been a single national officer position contested in the last eight years. This cannot be healthy for a democratic party,” the member of parliament for Manchester Central said.

“Therefore, we should consider amending the party’s constitution so that all office holders would have circumscribed tenure. Tenure could be limited by having either a mandatory retirement age, or a limit of how long one can hold a post, or some combination of the two,” he argued.

While Bunting made the suggestion against the background of the PNP’s one-seat loss to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in this year’s parliamentary election on February 25, it was also seen by some political analysts as a cautious but carefully planned step by the former PNP general secretary to contest Portia Simpson Miller for leadership of the party at its annual conference in September this year.

But in 2001, the issue of term limits was among a set of policy changes raised by the PNPYO, whose executive felt that they were necessary for Jamaica’s development and for the party to remain relevant.

“There are a number of ideas that we are coming with that the party may not embrace, but we are going to be advocating them, and just from the strength that we have on the ground, right around the country in every constituency, in every division, in every region, in every parish, then we are confident that we can make the impact that we would like to make,” Basil Waite, who was president of the PNPYO at the time, told the

Observer while revealing that the YO had a base of more than 10,000 card carrying members at the time.

Among the ideas Waite spoke of, and which the organisation said it would put forward for endorsement at the PNP annual conference, which was in session at the time of the interview, were:

• term limits for all elected political officials;

• the dismantling of garrison communities;

• the election of mayors;

• the appointment of town managers;

• micro-business development programmes for youth; and

• opposition to the decriminalisation of ganja.

The PNPYO said it had also developed policy papers on economic development and crime and violence.

Arnaldo Brown, who was a member of the PNPYO’s Policy and Advocacy Committee, said the youth arm was pressing for term limits at the leadership level based on the YO’s belief that politics needed a regular injection of new ideas.

“There are persons who, when they get into positions of power, refuse to leave after a specific time,” he told the

Observer.

“The fact that they stay there stagnates the ideas and changes that would be brought about. The details of the limits can be worked out, but it will bring people with new ideas into the political arena,” Brown said.

Added Waite: “We think that the lack of term limits is the enemy of renewal.”

Yesterday, when the

Observer asked Waite if the PNPYO had actually moved the motion at the conference he said yes. “It was moved, but not carried and was referred to a committee that was looking at the constitution of the party,” he said.

But Waite also told theObserver that Paul Burke, the current PNP general secretary, had moved a term limits motion at the party conference in 1994.

Last night, theObserver tried without success to contact Burke.

Last Thursday in his address, Bunting pointed to what exists in a number of countries, including Cuba and China, to support his point.

“It is interesting that just this month Cuban President Raul Castro proposed an age limit of 70 for those wishing to lead the Cuban Communist Party. He said the limit was required for the ‘systematic rejuvenation of the entire system of party posts’,” Bunting said.

“China has a mandatory retirement age of 68 and all top party officials are limited to two five-year terms in the same post. In Brazil, the mandatory retirement age is 70. In many other countries such as the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Haiti there are limits of one or two terms as president. Locally, the JLP has proposed term limits for a prime minister.

“The thinking behind these mechanisms to circumscribe tenure is that leaders as a class should never be trusted uncritically. Cliques exist in all parties and lead to favouritism, nepotism and other unwholesome practices. Therefore, reasonable limits must be imposed on the duration of individual leadership,” argued Bunting.