Azan: No welcome mat for ‘deportee’
Published:Monday | August 17, 2020 | 12:22 AM
Dubbing himself the ‘performance man’, Richard Azan says his record in Clarendon North Western is strong enough to repel the challenge of Phillip Henriques, whom he’s snarkily labelled a ‘deportee’ that he’ll dispatch come September 3.
The People’s National Party’s (PNP) Azan is seeking his third straight win in the seat, but fourth overall.
Meanwhile, Henriques is hoping to claw back some ground for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which, up to 2002, was the dominant political force in the constituency, whose history stretches back to the first general election in 1944 when Jamaica gained Universal Adult Suffrage.
Azan is claiming success in areas such as education and agriculture, which he believes will cause voters to push him past the 944-vote margin he won by in 2016.
“At the primary level, we were able to remove all the pit latrines, and today we can boast that all our primary schools have flush toilets,” he said.
For secondary schools, the focus was on improving the infrastructure for vocational areas such as auto mechanics and home economics.
“All our high schools, I was able to put in greenhouses. We also helped to improve the agricultural areas. As an example, Knox College was able to produce enough eggs for the boarding school and sell on the open market,” said Azan.
Twenty-four primary and six secondary schools are based in Clarendon North Western.
Over the past seven years, about 14,000 high-school students benefited from an ongoing skills-training programme, the representative said.
More than 1,000 farmers in areas facing climate-change risks benefited from a $1-billion grant through the Environment Foundation of Jamaica to boost resilience.
“I have tried my best, but I know that we have not completed everything,” Azan said.
The constituency is now without any commercial bank following the recent departure of the Bank of Nova Scotia branch in Frankfield, forcing residents to travel miles to May Pen, Christiana, or as far as Mandeville to do transactions.
The three-term MP said he wants to change that, along with giving more focus to the persistent problems of roads and water.
“The banks really treat the citizens of our country bad, especially the small communities. I can’t see through a little man from James Hill having to travel all the way to Christiana or all the way to May Pen to lodge a little money,” he told The Gleaner.
Azan said discussions are under way with a financial institution to roll out, next month, a mobile service catering to Spaldings and Frankfield.
For several constituents, those issues need to be addressed immediately.
“Azan a good boy. He may not do much for me, but me see him do whole heap a help for people,” said farmer Jeffory Mundle, just after leaving his farm in Sanguinetti last Wednesday. He pointed to Azan’s work with schools as one of the examples.
On whether he would give Henriques a chance, Mundle was proverbial: “You know the reason why the Rastaman never win election a Portland? Tru him nuh born deh. ... Nobody nuh know nutten ‘bout him character. At the end of the day, dem seh stranger nuh know deep water.”
But Kevin Spencer, a car-wash operator from Grantham, said that while the incumbent has done work in Spaldings and Ritchies, Frankfield, a traditionally JLP division, has been neglected.
“We want more street lights; we have some corners that are very dark. Months now we don’t have any water and everybody have pipeline in dem yard,” shared the 42-year-old, who said he was willing to give Henriques “a try”.
Azan used arguments similar to Mundle’s to explain what sets him apart from Henriques, a businessman.
“I was born and grown in North West Clarendon. I live in North West Clarendon. I lost the election in 2007. I didn’t leave the people, I stayed with the people,” he said.
“I believe he ran from Kingston. He contested an election in Kingston and he was not successful,” he said, referring to Henriques’ defeat to Maxine Henry Wilson in St Andrew South East in 2002.
“You can call him a deportee. He doesn’t have any roots here, and if tomorrow morning he loses the election – and he will lose – he will just pack and go.”
“As a matter of fact ... he didn’t bring anything here, and he will go back how he arrived,” charged Azan, who was the subject of a corruption probe in 2013 for authorising the construction of shops at the municipal corporation-owned Spaldings Market without permission.
Azan, who escaped criminal charges, said he does not regret what he did.
Meanwhile, Azan will be relying on the traditionally PNP-leaning divisions of Ritchies and Spaldings, with the fight for votes more likely in the battleground division of Thompson Town. Frankfield has consistently voted JLP.
Along with Frankfield, the JLP won Thompson Town in the last local government polls, but by just 11 votes.
Azan’s margins in the last two polls were 899 votes in 2011 and 944 in 2016.
Some 27,173 people are registered to vote in the constituency, 716 more than the 26,457 who were on the roll in 2016.