RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In­cum­bent La Brea MP Stephen Mc Clashie yes­ter­day put on a brave face in the wake of the re­jec­tion of his can­di­da­cy for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) screen­ing com­mit­tee on Mon­day night at Bal­isi­er House.

Mc Clashie was among two La Brea can­di­dates re­ject­ed by the screen­ing com­mit­tee, led by PNM leader and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley. A source said the oth­er can­di­date, Jil­lon Lewis, was al­so re­ject­ed, with the com­mit­tee in­struct­ing the La Brea Con­stituen­cy Ex­ec­u­tive to iden­ti­fy fresh prospec­tive can­di­dates.

An­oth­er can­di­date, Christo­pher Enci­nas, was re­port­ed­ly un­able to at­tend the screen­ing ses­sion due to an emer­gency. Enci­nas will be con­sid­ered along­side the new prospects go­ing for­ward, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands.

But when con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Mc Clashie de­nied be­ing re­ject­ed, say­ing the screen­ing process was not com­plete. He not­ed that it was in­ap­pro­pri­ate to com­ment fur­ther, as the process was still on­go­ing.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that one of the four La Brea can­di­dates with­drew and the La Brea con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive was asked to seek ad­di­tion­al po­ten­tial can­di­dates.

How­ev­er, even though he de­ferred com­ment, Mc Clashie pro­vid­ed Guardian Me­dia with a 60-page doc­u­ment ti­tled Proud and Lead­ing the Way, out­lin­ing com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tives un­der­tak­en dur­ing his tenure over the past two years.

“Just a lit­tle idea of what was done over the past two years. Does this seem ab­sent and failed? You be the judge,” he added.

Guardian Me­dia al­so un­der­stands that econ­o­mist Tahar­qa Obi­ka, who left the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress in 2023 and joined the PNM, may be a po­ten­tial can­di­date.

Mon­day’s screen­ings brought the num­ber of prospec­tive PNM can­di­dates to 32 out of the to­tal 41 con­stituen­cies. Nine­teen are work­ing in UNC-held ar­eas.

Mean­while, La Brea res­i­dents yes­ter­day said they were hope­ful for change as news spread that Mc Clashie may not be re­s­e­lect­ed to con­test the seat.

Ex­press­ing re­lief, some vil­lagers said they felt aban­doned by Mc Clashie and were hop­ing the new can­di­date will be youth­ful, vi­brant, and sym­pa­thet­ic to their needs.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Jean King, who lives a stone’s throw away from the MP’s of­fice, shared her frus­tra­tion.

“I asked Mr Mc Clashie to or­gan­ise some help to cut down this man­go tree in my yard and help fix the wa­ter that floods my yard. My hus­band passed away, so I’m man­ag­ing every­thing alone. Mc Clashie said he’d help, but up to now, noth­ing,” she lament­ed.

She al­so said un­der Mc Clashie’s tenure, youths suf­fered from a lack of jobs, al­though he was the Labour Min­is­ter. She not­ed that fam­i­lies were falling apart and that La Brea had no so­cial pro­grammes to help par­ents.

“Some lit­tle girls are get­ting in­volved with grown men right in their moth­er’s house. That can­not hap­pen by me. It’s heart­break­ing. Our youths need jobs; they need men­tors,” she em­pha­sised.

At the La Brea Pitch Lake, tour guides stood idle, wait­ing for tourists who nev­er ar­rived. They de­clined to be in­ter­viewed, say­ing it did not mat­ter who the MP was.

“We don’t get in­volved in pol­i­tics. It’s one thing that politi­cians get in of­fice for: to fat­ten their pock­ets,” one guide who re­fused to iden­ti­fy him­self said.

Ex­cept for for­mer MPs Hed­widge Bereaux and Fitzroy Jef­frey, res­i­dent Glen Cuffie said past rep­re­sen­ta­tives had failed them.

Cuffie, who lives next to Mc Clashie’s of­fice, said he made sac­ri­fices to send his daugh­ter to school but she can­not find work.

“My daugh­ter has all the qual­i­fi­ca­tions but can’t find a job. It’s the same sto­ry for many young peo­ple here—they’re idle be­cause there’s no work.”

Busi­ness­woman Denelle Dun­can-Davis, of Dun­can’s Tyre Shop, said un­em­ploy­ment and bad roads were the ma­jor is­sues in the com­mu­ni­ty. She al­so urged the in­com­ing MP to bond with the peo­ple and work to make their lives bet­ter.

When Guardian Me­dia drove through the La Brea stretch along the South­ern Main Road, shut­tered busi­ness­es and de­sert­ed vend­ing stalls were plen­ti­ful.

“Peo­ple aren’t pass­ing here any­more, so ven­dors have moved to oth­er ar­eas to sur­vive. This is the on­ly way to get some sales now,” said Shine Cal­liste, re­fer­ring to the fact that the new Archibald De Leon High­way, which con­nects San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin, was of­fer­ing mo­torists a dif­fer­ent route past the com­mu­ni­ty.

Cal­liste crit­i­cised Mc Clashie for be­ing a large­ly “ab­sent MP,” leav­ing con­stituents feel­ing in­vis­i­ble.

“La Brea de­serves some­one who will lis­ten, act, and bond with the com­mu­ni­ty—not just some­one who shows up dur­ing elec­tion time,” Cal­liste said.

Vil­lager Tevin James al­so said the youths had great po­ten­tial for sports but lacked op­por­tu­ni­ties. Goats were seen graz­ing on the Brighton Recre­ation Grounds, while the once vi­brant com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, which burnt down, was nev­er re­built.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day on the screen­ing com­mit­tee’s de­ci­sion to by­pass Mc Clashie, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Shane Mo­hammed said La Brea has faced ne­glect as it is a PNM strong­hold. He said both PNM and Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) strong­holds are of­ten ne­glect­ed be­cause politi­cians take votes for grant­ed.