In the less than half a year as Jamaica's first female Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller has evoked a range of reactions to her tenure. Most of the popular feedback is predictably grounded on her gender in terms of whether a woman can cope with the stresses that are inevitable in the job of running the country - occupying the seat where the buck stops.

Two of the more intriguing responses are reflected in recent letters to the Editor. The first such letter raised the question: 'Can a Prime Minister be a submissive wife?' That letter, based on the interpretation of a biblical passage, suggested that the Prime Minister as wife was not supposed to be submissive.

The second letter rejected that view as totally flawed. Our own view leans toward the primacy of the responsibility to the nation as more compelling than personal circumstance.

The latest Gleaner-commissioned polls published in the Sunday Gleaner show that while potential voter support for the Prime Minister and her People's National Party has slipped, there is no consequential surge for the Bruce Golding-led Jamaica Labour Party. So the status quo is one of political uncertainty

In the wider sphere of the nation's business, we think that the perceived popularity of Portia as a 'people person' has prompted some misgivings among those who anticipated instant salvation.

In this connection, we cite the frequent calls for the Prime Minister's intervention at the slightest hint of some social dislocation, factional disputes, bad roads or even inadequate water supply.

The most striking example, of course, was the strident protest of the public health nurses pursuing a salary dispute. Here was an example of a body of public sector workers apparently ignoring the established machinery of labour conciliation and demanding the personal intervention of the Prime Minister.

The danger here is that established institutions may be sidetracked because of emotional zeal. This has had the unfortunate sequel of political opponents using wage disputes for political mileage. JLP spokespersons have glibly promised to double wages of some public sector workers without an inkling of the specifics in the economic circumstances they would inherit in a change of administration.

This kind of reckless agitation has the potential to impact negatively on the mediation process that may have to be used to setttle the raft of wage disputes that are now being generated.

The conciliation machinery of the Ministry of Labour is already hard-pressed to maintain impartiality without having to contend with political pressure.

Apparently still faced with internal party issues, the Prime Minister as party leader may be sorely tempted to return to the hustings to get, as she terms it, her "own mandate".

We think she should resist the temptation and continue to find her feet in facing life as our first female leader of the nation. The time for the next general election is not that far away.