Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Left: People's National Party supporters demonstrate against Minister of Tourism Aloun Assamba in St. Ann on Friday, October 13. Mrs. Assamba has since declared she would not put hersef up for re-election in the next national polls.   Right: Minister of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture, Aloun N'dombet Assamba (right), cuts the ribbon officially opening the new Anancy Children's Village at Half Moon. She is assisted by storyteller Amina Blackwood Meeks (left) and managing director of the resort, Richard Whitfield. - File photos

IN January 2003, while she settled into her jobs as Minister of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture and Member of Parliament for South East St. Ann, Aloun Assamba spoke of how tough it was juggling the new assignments.

"The challenge of being an MP and a minister is very, very great, particularly with the job I have which requires me to travel," she told SHE Caribbean magazine. "But it's very important to the electors that they see their Member of Parliament and that you are actually available to them."

Apparently, many of Assamba's constituents believe she was not available enough. Following several protests by anti-Assamba groups in South East St. Ann, she informed the executive of the People's National Party (PNP) that she would not seek re-election as MP in the next general election.

Confirmed resignation

Donald Buchanan, acting general secretary of the governing PNP, confirmed Assamba's resignation.

On Sunday, it was announced that Dr. Francis Barnett, Carol Jackson and Sheree Brown were the contenders to replace Assamba in a seat the PNP has held since universal adult suffrage was declared in Jamaica in 1944.

Assamba, 51, will retain the Tourism portfolio which political watchers say she has handled competently since being appointed by then Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson, in October 2002. She succeeded current Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller as Tourism Minister.

The first signs that Assamba's days in South East St. Ann were numbered came in January when she was heckled at a rally in Claremont for Simpson Miller, who was campaigning for PNP president.

Demonstrations followed, one of them being a much-publicised street protest through the streets of Claremont, in mid-October.

Not an effective MP

Lloyd Garrick, PNP councillor for the Moneague division, told The Gleaner that Assamba was not an effective MP.

"What has led to Ms. Assamba's demise is her failure to listen to the people and her failure to meet with them," he said.

To say the South East St. Ann seat is a PNP stronghold would be an understatement. Even in the general election of 1980 which the party lost 51-9 to the Jamaica Labour Party, Seymour Mullings won it handsomely.

Assamba, a lawyer and divorced mother of one, came into representational politics with impressive private sector credentials. She was the former CEO of the thriving COK Credit Union; prior to that, she had a promising career in corporate law.

She was appointed a senator in 1998, and four years later, replaced the ailing Mullings as candidate. During the SHE Caribbean interview, the former senator pointed out that although the constituency traditionally voted PNP, representing South East St. Ann was anything but a cakewalk.

"I grew up in that constituency, so I didn't come to it," she said. "I spent a full two years ploughing the field, so to speak, because there was a lot of work to be done there."

The first of eight children born to her parents, Assamba was born and raised in Garfield, a district in the town of Moneague. Her father, a welder, worked at the Reynolds bauxite company while her mother was a housewife.

When Reynolds closed down during the 1980s, many South East St. Ann residents, including her father, became unemployed. She said that resulted in constituents returning to their farming roots.

Challenges

"We have one high school there which is Ferncourt, but because transportation is so much easier now, children go to school in Linstead and Ocho Rios," she said. "The challenges are that people want assistance with farming and developing small business."

One of her first moves as MP was to take administrators of the Jamaica Business Development Company to her constituency. She said that that organisation staged workshops and identified ways to help constituents start their own businesses.

An imposing figure, flashy fashion and bubbly personality made Aloun Assamba one of the Government's most popular figures.

Ultimately, neither could win over her constituents.