SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

With one week be­fore the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions (LGE), res­i­dents in the con­stituen­cies of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar say they haven’t seen ei­ther of them cam­paign­ing in their com­mu­ni­ties. They hope they will show up be­fore Au­gust 14 so they can tell them about the con­cerns and is­sues af­fect­ing their ar­eas

In Row­ley’s Diego Mar­tin West con­stituen­cy, a Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) strong­hold for decades, some res­i­dents felt he has for­sak­en them, while con­stituents in Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)-con­trolled Siparia called for Per­sad-Bisses­sar to be more vis­i­ble as she too has been miss­ing in ac­tion.

Dur­ing a vis­it by the Sun­day Guardian to Row­ley’s con­stituen­cy on Fri­day, he came in for heavy crit­i­cisms from some of his con­stituents. One of them, Covi­gne Road res­i­dent Melis­sa Pacheco, said the last time she saw Row­ley on her street was a week be­fore the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion.

“Yes, we know the Prime Min­is­ter is a busy man but he still has to re­mem­ber he is the MP of Diego Mar­tin West. We need to see him,” she said.

Pacheco said she went to Row­ley’s con­stituen­cy of­fice in Glen­coe a few months ago for help to get a job.

“I know there are jobs avail­able but the salary you get­ting can’t pay your rent, buy food, main­tain your chil­dren and cov­er your bills. I was hop­ing to get a prop­er pay­ing job,” she said.

She did not get any help.

Pacheco, 39, who has nev­er vot­ed, said: “Up to now in this elec­tion sea­son, I ain’t hear the Prime Min­is­ter nor the Op­po­si­tion Leader talk about any­thing that is re­al­ly go­ing to ben­e­fit the cit­i­zens of the coun­try. Both of them be­hav­ing like pri­ma­ry school chil­dren throw­ing talk at one an­oth­er.”

Claim­ing that both lead­ers are de­void of strate­gies, she added: “Dr Row­ley stop with the mau­vais langue and who say­ing this and who say­ing that. Deal with the is­sues that caus­ing re­al crime in the na­tion. Come to us with so­lu­tions.”

A few hous­es away, a woman who de­scribed her­self as a die-hard PNM said she has giv­en up on vot­ing be­cause the area no longer has a rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

“I give up. That is it with vot­ing and me. I done. We have our MP. We used to see him. We used to have meet­ings with him. I un­der­stand as Prime Min­is­ter you don’t have time to sit down and talk to your con­stituents to see af­ter their needs,” said the 58-year-old woman who did not want to be iden­ti­fied.

“I would like Dr Row­ley to take some time out. I know that you are very busy but take some time out and lis­ten to what the peo­ple are say­ing. The peo­ple are bawl­ing, there are peo­ple strug­gling.”

The woman said lack of care and com­pas­sion had been turn­ing peo­ple away from vot­ing and “peo­ple are fed up with the emp­ty promis­es.” She said she vis­it­ed Row­ley’s con­stituen­cy of­fice a few times to raise con­cerns about the com­mu­ni­ty’s ne­glect “but he was nev­er there.”

She sug­gest­ed that Row­ley del­e­gate some­one to hear com­plaints be­cause con­stituents are feel­ing side­lined, ig­nored and re­ject­ed.

“He has no idea what go­ing on down here. None!”

A group of men who were roast­ing fish near the Covi­gne Bas­ket­ball Court com­plained that they had not seen Row­ley in months. They plead­ed for im­prove­ments in their com­mu­ni­ty, list­ing un­em­ploy­ment, pover­ty, mur­ders and il­lit­er­a­cy as ma­jor prob­lems.

They said an­oth­er big is­sue is the num­ber of chil­dren in the com­mu­ni­ty who have lost their fa­thers to gun vi­o­lence and are grow­ing up with­out prop­er guid­ance or su­per­vi­sion.

“The lights in the bas­ket­ball court have not been work­ing for years and the rail­ings on the Covi­gne Bridge are falling apart. You can see signs of ne­glect. Dr Row­ley help the peo­ple who put you in pow­er. Don’t turn your backs on us,” said one of the men, who could not con­tain his anger.

“The same way the Prime Min­is­ter turned his back on us we will turn our back on them this elec­tion. The PNM not get­ting our votes. They not do­ing noth­ing for poor peo­ple in Covi­gne,” he added.

At Up­per Covi­gne Road, pen­sion­er Orville Williams said: “PNM don’t help no­body around here. On­ly when Kam­la was in pow­er we get wa­ter up here.”

Williams, who is vi­su­al­ly im­paired, claimed the con­stituen­cy is not well rep­re­sent­ed.

“I can’t tell you the last time Row­ley vis­it­ed his con­stituents. I know he has hands are full but he has to make time for the peo­ple who sup­port­ed him,” he said.

He­s­ton Mapp, of St Fran­cois Street, de­scribed the PNM as a big dis­ap­point­ment. He said the lives of con­stituents have not im­proved.

“What is the sense you con­struct­ing all these build­ings and you are not build­ing the peo­ple in your con­stituen­cy? As Prime Min­is­ter you can­not have a vi­sion and the peo­ple are blind.”

Mapp said when he en­ters the polling booth on Au­gust 14, he will de­lib­er­ate­ly spoil his bal­lot “be­cause no one is wor­thy of my vote.”

Care­nage Fish­ing As­so­ci­a­tion PRO Randy Quin­tero said the last time he saw Row­ley in the com­mu­ni­ty was last Oc­to­ber when he opened the Fish Fry fa­cil­i­ty in the dis­trict.

“Hold­ing down the posts of Prime Min­is­ter and MP at the same time is no easy task. You have to man­age your con­stituents and the en­tire coun­try at the same time, so I don’t ex­pect him to vis­it us as of­ten,” he said.

Quin­tero, 59, de­fend­ed Row­ley but said he should try a lit­tle hard­er to be there for his con­stituents: “Peo­ple are dis­sat­is­fied all around. It’s the mur­ders, the crime, the un­em­ploy­ment. It’s too much.”

Al­though he praised Row­ley for Care­nage’s $53 mil­lion po­lice sta­tion, Quin­tero said that had not pre­vent­ed an up­surge in mur­ders and gang war­fare in the com­mu­ni­ty.

“The peo­ple who are re­spon­si­ble, the peo­ple who we elect­ed there, I don’t think they are do­ing enough for us,” he said.

“I sup­port­ed the PNM in the past. If I go­ing to vote I have to see some­thing pos­i­tive where I could dip my fin­ger back in the ink and take a chance that some­thing good is go­ing to come out of it. I feel if Kam­la comes back in pow­er poor peo­ple go ben­e­fit more than we ben­e­fit­ing now. It seems as though no­body ain’t care about the low­er-class peo­ple af­ter the elec­tion done.”

Boat­builder Lyn­don Craig­well, who al­so voiced dis­plea­sure at the spate of mur­ders in Care­nage, said: “My MP needs to do a lot more for his con­stituen­cy … such as roads, lights and ameni­ties. Be­ing a leader of any coun­try,

you have to hear the cries of the peo­ple.”

Kam­la’s con­stituents com­plain

In Siparia, res­i­dents crit­i­cised the Op­po­si­tion Leader for call­ing on cit­i­zens to “light up” home in­vaders. Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who made the con­tro­ver­sial state­ment dur­ing a cam­paign meet­ing last week, in­sists she will not apol­o­gise.

Un­em­ployed fa­ther of two Kuldip Ram­soobagh, who lives in Morne Di­a­blo, said the com­ments were too loose.

“I don’t think it was the right mes­sage to send to the pop­u­la­tion. You can’t (fight) fire with fire. I think if an in­trud­er is in your home the right thing to do is call the po­lice. Don’t take the law in­to your own hands,” he said.

Ram­soobagh said he would like to see his MP re­duce pover­ty and un­em­ploy­ment and re­pair roads that are in a de­plorable state.

Ram­soobagh lives at Parsan Trace with sev­en oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers in a small, wood­en hut that has no wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty. He said he used to earn a steady in­come when Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship was in pow­er but now hus­tles for odd jobs.

Richie Rooplal, of Spencer Street, said telling cit­i­zens “to light up” home in­vaders was not a so­lu­tion to crime.

At Quar­ry Road, Sheila Dhan­raj, who can­not read or write, com­plained that she has had not been able to get a job in eight years.

“When Kam­la was in pow­er I get a work in Cepep and had a steady in­come for five years. I will nev­er stop vot­ing UNC be­cause they helped me re­al plen­ty. That woman Kam­la has a heart. She helped plen­ty poor peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty,” she said

Dhan­rah, 60, ad­mit­ted she had not seen Per­sad-Bisses­sar in the dis­trict for the LGE. She called on the MP to pay them a vis­it as the com­mu­ni­ty is faced with too many chal­lenges.

Her neigh­bour, Daye Manoo, 52, who is al­so il­lit­er­ate, broke down in tears as he re­lat­ed his plight. Calawatie Ramkissoon, who lives with Manoo, said he nev­er set foot in­side a class­room.

“He doh even know how to write his name. I start­ed to teach him lit­tle things,” she ex­plained.

Last year, Manoo fell and broke four ribs and was deemed un­fit to work. He be­gan to col­lect $1,300 a month in so­cial wel­fare ben­e­fits but said it is bare­ly enough to make ends meet. His home does not have pipe-borne wa­ter or elec­tric­i­ty.

“When­ev­er it rains un­der my house would flood. Is not two things I go­ing through. If Kam­la was in pow­er I am sure I would have been liv­ing a bet­ter life. I sup­port­ing she all the way this elec­tion,” he said.

Manoo showed his al­le­giance to the par­ty by proud­ly wav­ing a UNC flag in his ve­ran­dah.

An­tho­ny Har­ris cred­it­ed Row­ley for do­ing a lot for the coun­try dur­ing the pan­dem­ic but pledged to ral­ly be­hind Per­sad-Bisses­sar for the LGE even though he had not seen her cam­paign­ing in the con­stituen­cy.

“Yes, it would be nice if we could see her on the ground so she can hear what we have to say,” he said.

He does not sup­port calls for Per­sad-Bisses­sar to step down as leader of the UNC and give some­one else a chance to run the par­ty: “Nah, I would not even en­ter­tain that thought. She is a strong leader. Her heart is in the right place.”

Pen­sion­er Cur­tis Si­mon, who said he had no qualms about putting his X by the UNC, added: “I born a staunch PNM and in the morn­ing I would like to see Kam­la run this coun­try again.”

Pas­tor Hol­lis Pe­ters said too much mon­ey is be­ing wast­ed and there is “poor man­age­ment by lead­ers” which has been caus­ing the coun­try to de­cay.

He called on lead­ers to do their jobs for a bet­ter fu­ture.