council of elders - redundant talks

Not that a council of elders will be in the cards. Not that it will matter whether there is or there isn't a council of elders to make any material change. I am continuing this discussion simply for discussion's sake as a follow up to an interesting point raised by Chua Soo Kiat in his article in the Today paper on the same topic. Though Soo Kiat was advocating that more women are needed rather than oldies, he pointed out that paying a council of elders a token sum is a problem. How's that? Affordability is one problem, but a minor one. It is the moral authority of a council of elders that will be perceived by the public to be higher than those that work just purely for money. So the more one gets paid, the lesser is the moral authority, and vice versa. If this is going to be how the people will look at our political leaders, then the whole exercise of multi million dollar ministerial pay may erode and undermine their authority as we march towards the next general election. Money now seems to be the foremost factor in the minds of Singaporeans. Though I say that a council of elders may not be of interest to anyone now, but if we consider paying every one elected into the council a million or so, maybe it will revive some interest to have such a council. After all, money talks and many will be interested especially when millions are available for the taking. The more posts and positions created, the more people will stand to benefit. And no one has to come out from their pockets. Just pay from the public coffers.