It would have been courteous, and better, if Peter Phillips had informed Portia Simpson Miller beforehand of his intention to announce on Sunday night his intention to challenge her for the leadership of the People's National Party (PNP) at its annual conference in September.

But regrettable as that may be, it is not a fatal flaw and neither Mrs Simpson Miller nor her surrogates or handlers can credibly claim to have been ambushed. That Dr Phillips was considering the challenge and his impending announcement was perhaps the most open secret in Jamaica, much more inside the PNP.

The more fundamental issue for debate, in our view, is the basis of Dr Phillips' challenge and why Mrs Simpson Miller and her supporters believe that it is ill-conceived at this time - two-and-a-half years of Mrs Simpson Miller's ascendancy to the party's presidency and less than a year of the PNP losing the government.

Unnecessary distraction

We must confess more than a bit of disappointment at the argument, as it has so far been framed by the Opposition Leader and has been echoed by her key supporters, such as Mr Roger Clarke and Mr Donald Buchanan. Essentially, they make three points:

that a leadership contest will be divisive, especially in the context that the wounds left by the race of 2006 have not healed;

that with opinion polls showing Jamaicans are turning sour on the Jamaica Labour Party administration, the PNP has a good chance of an early return to government. A leadership race, therefore, is an unnecessary distraction; and the fact that an incumbent leader is being challenged and that it was happening "in the year of our 70th anniversary, no less".

The last point is a bit of trivia. In any event, Mrs Simpson Miller, undoubtedly aware of the vicissitudes of the Westminster model, affirmed the PNP's internal democracy and the right of anyone to see to lead.

What is reflective in the response is precisely what has been, for a long time, the concern of many Jamaicans about our political process in general and the PNP in particular. The party, in an abandonment of its tradition, has come to see itself primarily as an election machine, rather than a transformational movement of big, visionary ideas for the broad development of Jamaica.

Narrow partisans

Lacking a transcendental vision, the PNP has become good at winning state power and handing out so-called "scarce benefits and spoils" and trapped by a cynical crowd of narrow partisans. The real and perceived corruption that surrounded the PNP's recently broken long stint in government speaks thunderously and, as much as anything else, underlines the need for renewal.

It is in this context that we find an argument against Dr Phillip's challenge centred on short-term political considerations a disappointment. We expect that after 18 years in government, the PNP would be introspective, considering ways to renew itself and refining answers to the challenges faced by the country in the 21st century.

We expected, and still expect, therefore, that Mrs Simpson Miller would frame a response of why, in the circumstance, she remains the best person to lead. This, hopefully, is an election about big ideas, rather than a singular or narrow focus on personality.

It would say much about the PNP if it can't achieve this.