SINGAPORE: One resident wanted paternity leave and another wanted more infant care services.

Between responding to these and other reactions to the marriage and parenthood package, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong illustrated how the latest policies hope to negotiate between the economics and personal decisions of procreation.

To his constituent who suggested that two weeks of paternity leave would be just right, Mr Goh asked if the 0.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product the government was spending on the $1.6-billion package was enough or too much in return for perhaps 1,000 more babies a year.

Another member of the dialogue session held last night at Marine Parade Community Club suggested that more childcare leave would have helped, but Mr Goh said additional parenthood measures would affect the economy.

Instead, he suggested that couples look at the importance of parenthood from a personal point of view, specifically, from the vantage point of ageing.

Even those who start families are “in trouble” if their children do not live with them in their old age, especially in this age of globalisation when the younger generation are more likely to work overseas.

Mr Goh added, though, that it was not all about quantity; parents need to bond with their children — one reason why he would caution against promoting infant care centres too strongly.

“If we can avoid it, avoid as long as we can, to not disrupt the bond between child and parent,” he said.

“I would move cautiously with this. I would not make it too easily available.”

Besides family policies, the dialogue session with Mr Goh and the other MPs of Marine Parade GRC also touched on social graces, the rising cost of living and political openness.

On social graces, Mr Goh said: “We think this topic is really important.

“If we can become a gracious society, this place will be really worth living in.”

Some dialogue participants were doubtful, though, citing the rat race, the education system and parents’ attitudes as obstacles.

Mr Goh agreed that this would take time.

It is also going to take time for Singaporeans to accept the Government’s Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) policies, it would seem, as the issue came up again for airing.

According to Mr Goh, the Government has tried out two approaches.

One is to make cars so expensive that you keep the vehicle population low — the approach Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew prefers and which Mr Goh said was more practical.

Or to tax usage, which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is going for. Remarked Mr Goh, “Philosophically, this method is better”. - TODAY/sh