RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

De­spite be­ing home to one of the world’s ma­jor tourist at­trac­tions, the Pitch Lake, La Brea has long grap­pled with high un­em­ploy­ment and un­der­de­vel­op­ment.

Now, with Tourism Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell set to rep­re­sent the con­stituen­cy as the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) can­di­date in the forth­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions, con­stituents re­main di­vid­ed on whether his lead­er­ship will bring mean­ing­ful change.

Mitchell was an­nounced as the can­di­date af­ter an in­ter­nal screen­ing process on Thurs­day night, where sup­port­ers of both Mitchell and his op­po­nent, Jer­mel Pierre, gath­ered at the par­ty’s Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain head­quar­ters.

Pierre, 32, serves as the chair­man of the PNM con­stituen­cy in La Brea and is well-known in the area. His sup­port­ers in­clud­ed for­mer La Brea MP Hed­widge Bereaux, who served as MP for 16 years from 1991 to 2007.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Rousil­lac, Ves­signy, and Three Hands, La Brea, on Sat­ur­day, over a dozen res­i­dents shared their opin­ions on Mitchell’s can­di­da­cy.

Pat­sy Ram­sawak, of Rousil­lac, said, “I can­not say any­thing be­cause I don’t know him. I don’t know what he will do for the area or bring for­ward for the area. I want to see him pro­vide more jobs for the young peo­ple. Un­em­ploy­ment is high in La Brea.”

Kishen­dath Bis­soon shared sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments, say­ing, “They not help­ing no­body, watch at the place. Lots of un­em­ploy­ment. I don’t think he will make a dif­fer­ence.”

At the La Brea Junc­tion, food ven­dor Al­ice Craig al­so ex­pressed scep­ti­cism, say­ing she would wait to see how Mitchell per­forms.

“Maybe he will do some­thing, but I can’t say be­cause I don’t know who the per­son is. My work­er here says she knows him, and he is good, so I will wait and see.”

She added: “We need work here in La Brea. Jobs are hard to come by, and we need bet­ter roads. I wish him good luck and hope he does some­thing good for us.”

Nine­teen-year-old Odell Passe, who was rid­ing a bi­cy­cle along Three Hands, La Brea, al­so lament­ed high un­em­ploy­ment rates. He not­ed that La Brea was once a bustling town in gen­er­a­tions past and ex­pressed hope for change.

“I don’t know Ran­dall Mitchell. I would like him to do plen­ty of things, fix the roads,” Passe said.

An­oth­er youth, Kin­tay Trim, ex­pressed dis­sat­is­fac­tion with the choice of a can­di­date from out­side the con­stituen­cy.

“I don’t know Ran­dall Mitchell. I have nev­er seen him in La Brea, and I have no hope in this per­son. I have been around Jer­mel Pierre, and I could vouch for him, but I don’t know why they have to choose some­one from out­side for us. I would rather put my hope in some­one we know,” Trim said.

Mean­while, Kawa Charles took a more op­ti­mistic stance, say­ing, “Every­body should have a fair chance to try to bring bet­ter to the vil­lage. I am hop­ing that Mr. Mitchell brings bet­ter so that every­thing will work out for the vil­lage and the com­mu­ni­ty.”

Mitchell al­so had avid sup­port­ers. Hy­acinth Webb ex­pressed pride in Mitchell’s se­lec­tion.

“I feel proud that a man from my own heart will be there to rep­re­sent us. He is a great man, and I feel con­fi­dent we will get what we want for this com­ing year. I hope we achieve every­thing we want in life with Mr. Mitchell,” Webb said.

Oth­er sup­port­ers said they would vote for the PNM re­gard­less of the can­di­date.

Res­i­dent Ann Fran­cis said, “Who­ev­er comes in­to the par­ty, once it is PNM, I will vote. It doesn’t re­al­ly mat­ter who or what they are.”

For­mer MP Stephen Mc Clashie, Brighton/Ves­signy coun­cil­lor Jil­lon Lewis and Christo­pher Enci­nas, an al­der­man at the Siparia Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion, were the first three peo­ple to be screened for La Brea. How­ev­er, all three were re­ject­ed, and the La Brea con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive was lat­er in­struct­ed to search for more can­di­dates to widen the pool of nom­i­nees. The con­stituen­cy chair­man Pierre and Mitchell were lat­er screened, with Pierre promis­ing to work with Mitchell af­ter los­ing out to him.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Mitchell for com­ment on Sun­day and we are await­ing his re­sponse.