We are disappointed that the Prime Minister, Mrs. Simpson Miller, would insist that she has no need to debate Mr. Bruce Golding, the Opposition Leader, as she declared in her speech at the weekend.

Unless, that is, we have not grasped fully the nuance of Mrs. Simpson Miller's statement. Perhaps her argument that she did not have to prove herself in debate did not mean she would not or had no intention of debating Mr. Golding.

It is likely, therefore, that the Prime Minister means that there is no need, at this time, to meet Mr. Golding face-to-face, in a cut-and-thrust exchange and debate of ideas and visions. Her job, at this time, is to get on with the business of government. She will be willing to engage in the face-to-face vision thing during a real election campaign.

If that is the Prime Minister's thinking, then so be it.

But, as Mrs. Simpson Miller and her handlers will be keenly aware, a blanket refusal to debate Mr. Golding will only fuel the view held by some of her detractors, that the Prime Minister is not a person of ideas and a leader, who is not given to the discipline of governance.

Indeed, it will be tempting, and easy, for Mr Golding and his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to make this case, given the context of Mrs. Simpson Miller's action during her campaign for the presidency of the ruling People's National Party (PNP) - a victory that led to her prime ministership. Mrs. Simpson Miller, claiming scheduling problems, pulled out of planned debates with the other three contenders, causing the eventual collapse of the events.

Her critics, however, accused Mrs. Simpson Miller of dodging.

Whatever the real reason for her not taking part in those debates, her handlers quietly argued that staying out of such intellectual cut-and-thrust, was, strategically, for the better. For it was Mrs. Simpson Miller, as the front-runner, who had most to lose. Which, we think, did her a disservice. It robbed the PNP delegates of the opportunity of seeing the four contenders, on the same plane, at the same time outlining their ideas for Jamaica - their vision for the country. It would have been wrong to assume, if that were the case, that the others would, because of grasp of fact and detail, would have awed the delegates at Mrs. Simpson Miller's expense. That is to suggest that they discounted the other elements in the matrix of leadership.

At that time, however, only 4,000 PNP delegates were at stake. Now, it is the entire Jamaican electorate who will be called upon to make a choice about leader and government. It would be to their advantage to have an opportunity to assess their leaders as they expound on the same issues, at the same time.

Maybe the concern of Mrs. Simpson Miller's camp is that Mr. Golding's aim is to paint the Prime Minister as an intellectual lightweight girded in teflon. So what? In the first place, if Mrs. Simpson Miller has something to say, the people will know. Her greatest danger is not debating.

THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY RELECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.