The People’s National Party (PNP) clearly is so confident of victory in next Thursday’s general election that it feels there is no longer any need to listen to the voice of the people.

History is replete with examples of political parties whose arrogance has been severely punished by an electorate which has been taken for granted in similar fashion to how the PNP has treated with the people calling for it to participate in the national political debates. Withdrawal from this beneficial tool of our still-growing democracy has set an awful precedence that will come back to haunt us over and over.

On the surface of it, the PNP has no compelling reason for its stance. To the contrary, it has every reason to debate, given the extremely solid foundation that it has laid for the economy to grow and bring Jamaica into a level of prosperity that has hitherto evaded us.

Furthermore, as the party which never ceases to pride itself on its willingness to listen to the people, the PNP seems to have no problem turning a deaf ear to the private sector leadership, the church, civil society, and the man in the street using social media calling for it to debate.

Looked at in its simplest degree, the debates would have allowed the party to articulate the problems which it has with the Opposition, with the possibility of winning over those in the electorate who, at this point, cannot understand its reluctance. Debates are never simply about an individual, and in this case, the leader of the Opposition. They’re much bigger in their purpose and intrinsic value to nation-building.

But the PNP can afford to snub the people because it does not believe it will pay for this bit of arrogance and is not bothered by the tepid response of the public so far. The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), in particular, has been disappointing and surprisingly weak-kneed in its response.

This is a body which, unlike most of the others, can go much further than just talk. It can put its money where its mouth is by withholding contributions to the party until it agrees to debate. But we are not going to see that because the business community is seemingly wishing for a PNP return to power for no other reason than that they are happy with the direction of the economy. That is their right with which we have no quarrel.

But it is a right that should not take precedence over principle. Our electoral politics is coming from the days of the ‘wild west’ when bogus voting, ballot stealing, voter intimidation, and, yes, murdering of opponents, were the order of the day.

We must do everything to continue the progress made thus far to keep it civil, and political debates have to be an essential element of this new dispensation.