Last Thursday's contretemps between Jamaica Labour Party and People's National Party Senators and Members of Parliament during and after their swearing-in ceremony was an unfortunate display of immaturity and petulance inside and outside of Gordon House.

We have long held the view that members of the legislature are not and should not be expected to behave like docile Sunday School children. But as mature adults who have been given the privilege of serving the Jamaican public at the highest levels in the country's legislature, they are expected to act the part. The refusal of some of the newly sworn MPs to extend the common courtesy of shaking hands with the party leader against whom they contested was, to say the least, an egregious display of bad manners. That others should feel so miffed that they would want to retaliate in like manner and then make matters worse by trading expletive-laden insults afterwards, does not leave much confidence in their ability to render sound judgement in debating legislation brought to the House. The drafting and amending of laws related to public policy is serious business requiring maturity and commitment to the public good over and above party or personal interests. Some of the new senators and MPs went to great lengths on Thursday, unnecessarily so, to provide ammunition to those who believe they had no business inside the House in the first place.

It was also supremely ironic that they should have behaved the way they did, given the tone and tenor of the speeches of Prime Minister Bruce Golding and new House Speaker, Delroy Chuck. More experienced politicians have a duty and a responsibility to set the right tone in the House so that new members, perhaps flush with their political success and a sense of triumphalism, may learn to restrain themselves.

The Parliament has yet to have its first business sitting and already the Jamaican public is being treated to unseemly, juvenile behaviour. It was hardly surprising, therefore, that some of this simmering hostility was picked up by party supporters amassed outside of the Parliament. The verbal clashes could easily have deteriorated into violent confrontations. Politicians often claim that they do not control the behaviour of supporters. This is true, but the way they conduct themselves also sends signals about what is appropriate and what is not.

We expect that given the narrow margin of victory obtained by the JLP, and the agitation to overturn the results in the courts, that some of the politicians will seek every opportunity to keep their opponents on the defensive. If they persist in this behaviour, it would suggest that they have failed to grasp the unique opportunity presented to them in the closeness of the election results. This is an opportunity for sober, mature conduct in the nation's Parliament, mindful of the fact that the electorate is almost evenly divided. The politicians on both sides would do well to show due respect to their opponents and the Jamaican public. Parliament is no place for silly, adolescent behaviour.

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