On Queen Street, in the heart of Arima, a car with loudspeakers canvassing the district on Tuesday, blaring at people to support the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) candidates in the upcoming Local Government elections was not really necessary, given that the borough has been regarded as a long-time PNM stronghold.
“Don’t let what happened in 2010 happen again” emanated from the booming loudspeakers referring to the Congress of the People’s (COP) Rodger Samuel taking the Arima seat for the People’s Partnership in the 2010 general election, however, was a wake-up call that tomorrow’s elections will not be a cake walk. Education Minister Anthony Garcia is now the MP for Arima.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian from Photo House studio at Woodford Street, Arima, businessman Roger Belix said, “The Arima political landscape is stifling us, we’re not seeing a togetherness, there’s a lot of divisions now and through certain business communities.
“We’re seeing that tension. A lot of people are disenchanted with politicians in general, especially the Gens d’Arimes (true Arimians), and there’s a disconnect between the people and their representatives.
“It is clear that people are not satisfied. You can hear it on the ground, they’re disappointed that their councillors did not make themselves more available to the masses and everything was like for party first instead of the people.”
He said he had hope when George Hadeed was appointed Arima mayor, but he lost faith with his manner of approach to the people of Arima when he did certain things without consultation—such as moving the Arima Borough Day parade which is traditionally held on a Sunday to a Friday on August 5 this year.
Belix said the business community incurred great financial losses, the roads were blocked off and goods vehicles had to be turned back.
When Hadeed was contacted on Thursday, he said quite a number of burgesses did not come out on a Sunday and people were informed of the road closures via a PA system.
He said in retrospect he felt that the number of streets that were closed off was excessive and that they could have allowed traffic to flow much smoother.
According to Geraldine James, a Victory Street, Arima resident, jurisdiction for the Housing Development Corporation’s (HDC) Carib Gardens apartments and the road was split between the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC) and the Arima Borough Corporation (ABC).
She said the ABC would fix its side of the road and leave the side of the street that was the TPRC’s responsibility to repair, hence the road remained cracked and unfinished.
James said she would usually vote PNM and while residents backed them up, but they came and gave them empty promises.
She said in 2011, then minister of works and transport Jack Warner promised to build a retaining wall within one week on the western side of the HDC houses to prevent debris from the nearby hill falling onto the houses during heavy rainfall. The residents are still waiting.
Kurt Cain, from Bon Air, said the PNM may win again in Arima but the arrogance and the dictatorial and autocratic approach by the leader of the party was going to destroy it.
He said, however, the perception was that all the benefits were going to an ethnic minority and low-income African people who were supposed to be the grassroot supporters of the PNM had not gained anything.
When asked if he had seen any trickling down effect of resources for infrastructure and employment reaching poor people on the ground, he said Cepep did not count.
Wallerfield resident Jenny Singh, an Arima market vendor for over 20 years, said successive governments did not do anything for vendors.
She said they felt numb and she was not feeling to go and vote as she was not seeing any improvement since the PNM came in power.
Singh said the Arima MP promised when he won the 2015 general election that he would “do something” for the vendors such as build them a proper facility, but they never saw him until campaigning for the local elections came up.
Another vendor, Teresa Camacho, from Pinto Road, said no matter who was in power, it was only broken promises for the vendors and “small man”.
She said the lack of parking facilities in Arima contributed to sales dropping drastically because customers preferred to go to the supermarkets and also not face the constant threat of wreckers.
Akiel Noraay, from Malabar, said she would like to see some changes take place in terms of the crime situation.
She said education and unemployment were factors to look into to combat crime and crime statistics would fall if youths had something to look forward to.