Hans Des Vignes, Marsha Lorriane Walker and Janice Learmond-Criqui, have all found their way into my regularly neglected mailbox.
De Vignes, Walker and Learmond-Criqui greet me when I enter and leave my constituency, of Diego Martin West, via strategically placed banners, with toothy smiles and the “I care” sparkle behind their eyes.
You see all three are competing for my vote by doing as little as possible in hopes that they will sit in the dismally empty constituency office that collects dust upon your entry to Point Cumana.
To my three candidates, I say keep all yuh posters and flyers, leave my mailbox alone and stop contributing to my headaches with all yuh loudspeaker trucks that roll through my valley all day on Saturday.
Listen, if you want my vote, stop spending all that money on flyers, posters, speaker truck rentals, t-shirts, etc. and use those funds to do something useful.
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Let me see you cleaning drains, let me see you cutting grass in the numerous overgrown community grounds in the constituency, let see you painting walls in schools, and community centers.
And I don’t want to hear what the PNM or the UNC/PEP or the NTA have to offer in their national manifestos. I want to hear what YOU my representative have planned for YOUR constituency.
I want to hear De Vignes, Walker and Learmond-Criqui discuss their plans to address the concerns of the residents of Diego Martin West. By plans I mean details and budgets and timelines and finances… not no pie in the sky solutions.
I want to hear a detailed plan on solving traffic issues in and out of the Chaguaramas Peninsula. I want to hear how you plan to engage with the various youth and community groups in the area to help stem gang activity through targeted programmes aimed at the young.
I want to hear you are going to buss down the door at the Water and Sewerage Authority and fight, tooth and nail, to upgrade the water delivery systems in the area, so that your constituents don’t have be dependent on tanks and water delivery. I want to see you engage with the Carenage fisher folk and not just pelt a fancy under-utilised Fish Fry at them.
I want to see you meet with the boating industry in Chaguaramas and develop plans to expand, create more jobs and apprentice programs. I want you to do anything other than smile and beg for a vote.
Now, I know some of you are saying, “But Alicia, a lot of the above is the responsibility of XYZ Ministry, which your Member of Parliament doesn’t have control of.” And that is true, but and this is a big BUT, the MP for an area is meant to serve as an advocate for those who have voted him or her into power. They were voted to serve, not snatch a fancy Ministerial position and dick off, which is why I have problem with MPs also serving as ministers, but that’s for another day.
The reality is people are just fed up with the broad promises and ghost MPs.
Recently having come out of retirement to help AZP News with the election workload, I found myself walking through St James for “Man on The Street” interviews.
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Other than a man who admitted he was drunk, had smoked some weed and sang some David Rudder tunes for me, most people refused to be recorded or simply ran away from me. The latter was the most popular response, which hurt my feelings a bit.
But in the listening to the people who did talk to me, I discovered the majority shared my sentiments on those vying to represent them in their home constituencies.
Promises that rarely materialise and MP’s that only appear when elections have been called. It doesn’t matter which party wins because it is all the same. Many, if not most, of those I spoke too doubted they would even vote in this year’s elections, including a man wearing a PNM jersey.
So, unless our candidates get their hands dirty, people don’t believe anything will be any different. If you want people to vote for you, especially if you are in a constituency that was previously served by a long time MP, then you need to show them you are committed to their concerns. Not only national concerns, but the concerns they have within their communities.
Also, I hope come April 29th, all those blasted banners and signs come down! I’m over it.
