ELIZ­A­BETH GON­ZA­LES

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

To­ba­go West MP Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis says she re­mains com­mit­ted to stay­ing con­nect­ed with her con­stituents and con­tin­u­ing her ser­vice. She is ready to con­test the seat again.

“I say yes, I in­tend to of­fer my­self again.”

Cud­joe-Lewis, who has al­ready served two terms, said she was not in­tim­i­dat­ed by the new To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty or any chal­lenger for the seat with­in the PNM.

Her strat­e­gy, she said, is to let her work speak for it­self.

“It’s all about a re­la­tion­ship with the peo­ple you serve. Of­ten­times, when we walk from place to place, it’s not on­ly about find­ing out what peo­ple want. Some­times, peo­ple want to scold you. Some­times, peo­ple want to ad­vise you. So it’s about build­ing a re­la­tion­ship, main­tain­ing a re­la­tion­ship. Of course, there are cer­tain vibes that you pick up from the ground here and there. Some of them you could fix; some of them you can’t fix im­me­di­ate­ly.”

With the PNM screen­ing process in Trinidad in full swing, Cud­joe-Lewis is prepar­ing to face the com­mit­tee when screen­ing be­gins for the To­ba­go seats.

“What I ap­pre­ci­ate most about the peo­ple of To­ba­go West is that they are rea­son­able peo­ple. I think they are un­der­stand­ing. It’s a re­la­tion­ship, it’s a con­ver­sa­tion. It’s no shout­ing, no cussing us and that kind of thing, which I’m very grate­ful for. It’s about re­main­ing in con­tact and be­ing truth­ful and hon­est about what you can do and what you can’t do.”

Cud­joe-Lewis ad­mit­ted some con­cerns raised by con­stituents take time to re­solve, es­pe­cial­ly the con­cerns that fall un­der the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA).

How­ev­er, some con­stituents felt she could do more to rep­re­sent them and want­ed to see more of her in the area. Bethel res­i­dent Gary Wal­ters told Guardian Me­dia, “She could do bet­ter, that is we gyal. I know Sham­fa from a child. She knows me well, so I hope she’s not vex with me, but I need prop­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion.”

Oth­ers said they were sat­is­fied with her work.

“I don’t have any prob­lem. I know she’s do­ing right. She’s in­to sports, and we could see her at Mt Gomery.”

Oth­ers who didn’t want to be iden­ti­fied al­so said they had no is­sues with Cud­joe-Lewis and want­ed her to stay as their MP.

In re­sponse, Cud­joe-Lewis men­tioned the chal­lenge of bal­anc­ing her du­ties in Trinidad with be­ing present as she’d like in To­ba­go.

She spoke of dou­bling up on her com­mu­ni­ty walk­a­bouts and keep­ing her team on the ground, even when she’s in Trinidad.

Cud­joe-Lewis first won the To­ba­go West seat in the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Her win shift­ed pow­er back to the PNM fol­low­ing the To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple’s rule. 

In the 2020 elec­tion, she re­tained her seat, fend­ing off three con­tenders—Tashia Grace Bur­ris of the PDP, Ri­car­do Phillip of the Class Ac­tion Re­form Move­ment and Nick­o­cy Phillips of Uni­ty of the Peo­ple.