LETTER | Muda of all people should be the one to oppose the recent proposal by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65.

They should, because this proposal is almost certainly made to indulge in the self-interest of the older generation of the managerial and supervisory classes and is most likely against the interests of the youth.

This idea is almost certainly made to indulge in the self-interest of the managerial and supervisory class, because it is unlikely that it is the senior citizens among the working class who will benefit from this move.

Which working-class person that you know of will want to work above the age of 60? If your job is to lay bricks or drive a lorry, you will most certainly desire to retire by the age of 60.

Why? Because who in the world would still want to do physically laborious jobs, while being lorded over by their manager or supervisor, even when they have become grandparents?

A 60-year-old manager or supervisor has likely accumulated enough savings to be able to live the rest of their life in a financially sound manner.

Even if this is not the case, then there is still no need for the government to raise the retirement age, because the class that the government should be thinking more of assisting, is the 60-plus-year-old working-class person, who is likely in an even worse financial shape than the 60-plus-year-old person from the managerial and supervisory class.

Higher minimum wage

The way to assist the 60-plus-year-old working-class person, by the way, is not by raising the retirement age to 60 to 65. Nobody wants to see a senior citizen slogging it out in the sun and rain, while being lorded over by other people, to eke out a living.

If you want to assist a 60-plus-year-old working-class person to have sound finances in their old age, we should advocate for a higher minimum wage or to backdate the wages of the working class, so that the senior citizens among the working class will be able to get a lump sum from their past contributions.

The reason a 60-plus-year-old manager or supervisor likely wishes to continue to work is that their job mostly just involves controlling other people, especially the younger workers or the working-class workers.

When they retire, these 60-plus-old managers and supervisors are likely unable to lead a satisfying retired life, simply because they feel like they are not in control of anything, and thus feel useless and powerless.

It is likely their addiction to power and control that prods these old managers and supervisors to yearn to return to the workplace, where they can indulge in their addictions.

The idea that the old managers and supervisors simply wish to return to the workplace to contribute their vast experience to the country or the economy is also strictly for the birds.

Best before 60

Look at our old politicians, for example – do they look like they have anything to contribute to anyone?

In whichever field you look at, the people who generate the most value tend to be between the ages of 30 to 50. Whether you are a movie maker or a scientist, or a chief executive officer, your best work tends to be done within this age bracket.

Albert Einstein did his best work before he was 30. Ace directors like Steven Spielberg, John Woo and Mani Ratnam also did their best work before they entered their 60s. I am 100 percent sure that legendary CEOs like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates were much better before their 60s than after.

It is a fallacy to believe that experience keeps growing with age. At a certain age, likely around 40 or 50, experience will plateau, skills will diminish, energy level will fall, and your knowledge will become outdated.

At this stage, your ability to generate value will almost certainly decline as compared to someone who is younger than you.

People who are in their 60s should actually be encouraged to let go of the world, not cling to it.

When you are in your 60s, death might be so near to you that you can see with your own eyes, because you might be attending a funeral once every couple of months, when it used to be once every couple of years.

When death is so near to you that you feel its presence once every couple of months, it is actually better for you to prepare your mind and heart to face death, rather than continue to cling to the world.

Over to the youth

What our country needs to do to rejuvenate our economy is to put the bulk of control, access and resources in the country, in the hands of younger people who are in their prime, so that they can generate the sort of value that can take our country forward.

To do this, we actually have to pry open the hands of the older generation, and force them to release the control, access and resources that they are hogging, into the hands of the young people.

To do this, maybe we should think about lowering the age of mandatory retirement from 60 to 55, not raising it from 60 to 65.

Old people who feel powerless or useless if they don’t go to work and exercise power and control in their workplace, actually have an addiction problem.

They need therapy to wean themselves out of their addiction to power and control, not more opportunities to indulge in it.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.