Seeing The Prosperity Of Young Age Leaders From Soft Skill Perspectives

Gibran Rakabuming Raka, wearing a parking attendant's shirt complete with the nametag 'Mas Gibran' while attending a construction parade in Solo City, Central Java (Central Java), Friday (18/8/2023). (Twitter)

There is no certainty about whether Gibran Rakabuming Raka will run as a vice presidential candidate (Cawapres) in the 2024 Presidential and Vice Presidential Elections in Indonesia. The appearance of the name of President Joko Widodo's eldest son is the first time because there is a lawsuit regarding the age limit of the vice president. The Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) submitted a request for a judicial review of the minimum age limit for presidential and vice presidential candidates to the Constitutional Court.

The party, led by Giring Ganesha Djumaryo, assesses that the minimum age limit for presidential and vice-presidential candidates now is a discrimination against young people. Throughmar's attorney, PSI emphasized that this step was taken in an effort to provide space for young Indonesians to lead.

Article 169 letter q of the Election Law reads, 'Requirements to become a presidential candidate and a vice presidential candidate are at least 40 years old.' PSI submitted a judicial review so that the lowest presidential and presidential candidate age limit is 35 years.

Gibran's age will now be even 36 years in October. What PSI is fighting for then raises a conclusion in the public that this is a shortcut to perpetuate Gibran running as a vice presidential candidate. This is reinforced by the closeness of the Mayor of Solo with one of the presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto.

It means that now the community is just waiting for the response of the Constitutional Court (MK) to this judicial review. So, is it true that a person's feasibility to become a leader can only be seen from age?

According to Taufik Balaudin, author of the book "Brainware Leadership Mastery", the minimum age limit of 40 years for vice presidential candidates is not without reason. According to him, in general, optimally mature is the age of 40 years.

"Talking from angleuro science and soft skills, the size of adults in terms of maturity, maturity in thought, in general is 40 years. That's the reason why previous regulations at that age," Taufik told VOI.

"This should actually be a question, why suddenly change. What is the motivation? The behavior of a person will later be in accordance with the intention. Is the intention of a spiritual or transactional basis. Spiritual means what we can give later.

Leaders with relatively young age are also feared to cause an ideal relationship between superiors and subordinates. The ability of a young leader will always be questioned by subordinates. Our culture prefers a more mature superior by age," added Taufik.

However, if you look at the trends of other countries in the world, the trend of young leaders has been rife in recent years. Not long ago Ibrahim Traore was ranked first as the youngest head of state in the world.

At the age of 35, Ibrahim Traore had already occupied the top position in Burkina Faso after launching a coup against the previous leader, Paul-Henri Damiba, in September 2022. Before becoming a leader, Ibrahim was a geological student. He then received education at the Georges Namonao Military School.

Chile is also led by a president who is under four. Gabriel Boric was only 35 years old when he was elected president of Chile two years ago. There is also Prime Minister Montenegro, Dritan Abazovic, who this year is 37 years old.

Despite his fairly young age, he had a long experience before becoming PM. Abazovic has served in the Montenegro government for eight years, starting as a member of parliament until he was appointed prime minister in April 2022.

Domestically, Gibran is also actually, if he really progresses, not the first person to sit in government when he was young. Prabowo Subianto's father, Soemitro Djojohadikoesoemo, served as Indonesian trade minister for the first time in 1950. At that time he was only 33 years old.

Soekarno and Mohammad Hatta were aged 26 and 24 when they became chairman of the Indonesian National Party and chairman of the Indonesian Association. Likewise with the 36-year-old Sutan Sjahrir when he was appointed prime minister.

In the current Jokowi era, Dito Ariotedjo was recently appointed as Minister of Youth and Sports on April 3. The man who graduated from the University of Indonesia was 33 years old when he replaced Zainudin Amali.

According to constitutional law expert Zainal Arifin Mochtar, the age limit for candidacy for increasingly aging public officials is actually dangerous. According to him, young age does not mean immature and old age does not mean unturprivileged. Therefore, he asked to rethink the age limit.

"It's time for us to rethink, because if we look at so many rules regarding the nomination of public positions, it's getting older," said Zainal.

Currently, to be appointed as the head of the KPK must be at least 50 years old, from the previous 40 years. For the position of the Constitutional Court, the age limit for being the chairman of the Constitutional Court continues to shift from 40 years, then to 47 years and the last to 55 years. Even in the current bill, the plan is to rise again to 60 years. According to him, this could be dangerous because we can be trapped in a geronocracy.

"I think there is a real danger that political positions are shifted, getting older. Maybe we are stuck with gerontrocracy," he said.

Gerontocratics are briefly dominated and controlled by the elderly. The general characteristics of geronocracy leadership are conservative, slow, and rigid.

The term gerontocracy was popularized in France in the 19th century as criticism of parliament increasingly dominated by politicians who are old with political behavior of polarizing. In practice, gerontocracy limits access to people who are still young to power.

At that time, for the sake of political stability, parents controlled the government legally by applying the age threshold to become public officials. For example, a person who will be a deputy must be at least 40 years old. The right to vote is also only owned by people over the age of 30.

But now France has changed. President Emmanuel Macron became president in 2017 when he was only 39 years old. He has been France's youngest leader since Napoleon Bonaparte.