The conditions laid down by the People’s National Party (PNP) to participate in planned political debates ahead of the February 25 General Election are really designed to shield the prime minister from the event.

For it is an open secret that debating is not an activity that she relishes, unlike her predecessor, Mr P J Patterson. This is why campaign teams prepare their candidates.

In effect, it is not a weakness which most Jamaicans hold against Mrs Simpson Miller, as we all accept that each individual is blessed with different skills. Furthermore, she has never disgraced herself in any of her previous debates, seeming to use her more superior experience to hold her own.

The fact, though, is that Mrs Simpson Miller is the chief executive of this country, and as such she should not appear to be afraid to face her political opponent in what is really a formal discussion on policies that are important to the Jamaican electorate.

As was correctly pointed out by Press Association of Jamaica President Mrs Dionne Jackson Miller, the election campaign is very short, thus limiting the amount of time that the public and media have to probe the positions of candidates and their parties.

Not many Jamaican politicians are comfortable facing probing questions on live television and radio, mostly because of the fact that their answers will shape public opinion of them, especially among people in the middle and upper socio-economic groups.

Those are the people who, in most instances, can swing elections, when they decide to vote.

Given the usual hue and cry over the growing number of uncommitted and disaffected voters in the country, one would have thought that a party like the PNP, which prides itself as a champion of democracy, would want to ensure that it does everything possible to contribute to a positive shift in voter turnout at the next election.

Insisting that the party will not debate until Opposition Leader Andrew Holness apologises to the prime minister for campaign comments, and until Mr Holness answers questions about his house is not cutting it, even if he should. Those are issues that the PNP can effectively address in other fora, instead of depriving those among us who depend on the positions articulated under examination to make informed decisions.

On Saturday, the Jamaica Debates Commission issued a news release stating that it was encouraged by an undertaking given by PNP General Secretary Mr Paul Burke that the party would respond today to the commission’s request to reconsider its position on participating in the debates.

We hope that some amount of maturity has returned to the party over the weekend, and that it will live up to its reputation of encouraging open and vibrant discussion on issues of national importance.

The Jamaican political debates have never risen, or fallen, some might say, to the level of this year’s United States Republican presidential primary debates which are raucous, at best.

Neither do we get the best from the candidates in the town hall format that the PNP has also called for in order to steer clear of the opposition leader.

Anything but a ‘yes’ today for the full debate format will leave a huge question mark over the motive of the PNP in the minds of the electorate.