Yvonne Webb

For­mer San Fer­nan­do May­or Kaz­im Ho­sein re­act­ed in shock yes­ter­day to the an­nounce­ment of his ap­point­ment as a sen­a­tor and Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment.

He re­places Franklin Khan who has been ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, a port­fo­lio for­mer­ly held by Nicole Olivierre who was giv­en the axe in the sec­ond Cab­i­net reshuf­fle of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day.

He is al­so the sec­ond May­or of San Fer­nan­do to hold the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment port­fo­lio. One of his pre­de­ces­sors, Mar­lene Coudray, who served as both CEO and may­or was el­e­vat­ed to that Cab­i­net po­si­tion un­der the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Ten min­utes be­fore an email an­nounc­ing the changes to the com­po­si­tion of the Cab­i­net, Ho­sein said he re­ceived a tele­phone call in­form­ing him that he was sched­uled to be sworn in as both a sen­a­tor and Cab­i­net Min­is­ter lat­er that af­ter­noon.

"Is about ten min­utes now I got that call," he said short­ly af­ter 11 am yes­ter­day.

"I was go­ing about my nor­mal busi­ness... hear nah, I shocked yes. To tell you the truth, I was so shocked when the caller said they will con­tact me lat­er be­cause to­day is the swear­ing in cer­e­mo­ny. I want­ed to know if it was me the per­son was re­al­ly talk­ing to," he added.

Ho­sein said up un­til Sun­day evening, af­ter the PNM's con­ven­tion and launch of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions, he ac­cept­ed a nom­i­na­tion from the con­stituen­cy to be an al­der­man and hope­ful­ly to be elect­ed as may­or for a sec­ond term.

"I had no idea this was in the works," Ho­sein said. How­ev­er, Ho­sein, a for­mer coun­cil­lor and may­or on the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion, said he was hum­bled by the ges­ture of the Prime Min­is­ter to re­pose that kind of con­fi­dence in him.

"I am hum­bled. I am glad the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter has the con­fi­dence in me to do the job."

"I am go­ing to do the best job I can, just as I hope I did as the first cit­i­zen of San Fer­nan­do, I as­sure you," he said.

A deeply re­li­gious prac­ti­tion­er of the Mus­lim faith, Ho­sein added: "I will not let down God, I am not go­ing to let down my­self, I am not go­ing to let down the pub­lic and I will not let down my Prime Min­is­ter."

The sec­ond gen­er­a­tion may­or, his fa­ther, the late Ra­keeb Ho­sein be­ing the first May­or of San Fer­nan­do in the fam­i­ly, said he would do his best in his new dis­pen­sa­tion.

"Lo­cal gov­ern­ment is a di­rect link with the peo­ple and peo­ple want sim­ple things done. They want their drains cleaned, prop­er roads, street lights, pub­lic health is­sues ad­dressed. I in­tend to con­nect with all of the may­ors and chair­men and meet with them at least once a month," he said.

For Ho­sein, there will not be any hon­ey­moon, as the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions are sched­uled for No­vem­ber 28.