From left, Hanna, Assamba and Mullings

Garwin Davis, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Oh, what a difference a few years make! It wasn't that long ago when Aloun Assamba, attorney-at-law 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 also appointed senator by then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson in 1998. For Ms. Assamba, the possibilities not only seemed plentiful, but borrowing a popular cliché, also seemed rather endless.

So, it came as no surprise that, four years later, after it became clear that elder People's National Party (PNP) statesman Seymour Mullings was being shortlisted as Jamaica's point man in Washington, Assamba's name surfaced as a possible replacement.

And what a welcoming it was! With the new candidate boasting a solid résumé, and above all else, coming in with the full backing of the party leader and other senior PNP stalwarts, Assamba was brought in with all the fanfare in the world and pretty much given a blank cheque to do as she saw fit.

Poor Peter Fakhourie, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate, never had a chance. With the PNP machinery fully in tow, Assamba blew him away by a little over 3,000 votes. What was significant though, was that despite Assamba's relatively comfortable victory, Fakhourie's nearly 5,000 votes was surprisingly large and one of the better showings by a JLP candidate in 22 years.

Controversy

It wouldn't take long for the cracks to start showing in the PNP constituency organisation. Two years later, Assamba, who by then had become the Tourism Minister, was at the centre of a national controversy over a statement that many persons felt smacked of political tribalism.

She reportedly told delegates at a meeting of the PNP's Region Three that a civic committee established in her South East St. Ann constituency had been deliberately stacked with PNP members.

This was done, she said, because of "an agenda that we have that South East St. Ann will never be represented by anybody other than the People's National Party."

high-profile job

It would only get worse for the Tourism Minister. Call it the pressures of juggling her high-profile job as Minister of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture, and also as the Member of Parliament for South East St. Ann, but Ms. Assamba would soon start to complain of how tough it was to deal with both 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 said. "It is very important to the electors that they see their Member of Parliament and that you are actually available to them."

Her constituents, however, felt that she had not been taking her own advice and accused her of dereliction of duty. The first signs that Assamba's days in South East St. Ann were numbered came in January 2006 when she was heckled at arally in Claremont for Portia 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. Very soon, there were a number of other protests throughout the constituency, with persons calling for the Tourism Minister to go.

Refusal

Assamba bravely tried to hang on, blaming her troubles on what she called a small group of individuals who turned against her because of her refusal to allow herself to be controlled by them.

"It seems to me that there are people who recognise that they cannot control me," she said. "There are elements from both parties, it seems, that have got together and decided to remove me from the constituency. I am committed to this country; I am committed to this Government. I am committed to the party leader and have said so. I have worked assiduously, many times to the detriment of my family."

But without the full backing of the party hierarchy and with the constituency machinery no longer at her disposal, the writing was on the wall for Ms. Assamba. In November 2006, she announced the inevitable, that she would not seek re-election as MP in the next general election.

Following Assamba's resignation, it would only get worse for the PNP as it relates to the party's handling of the selection process to find a replacement. It emerged soon after that three candidates were in the running to replace the Tourism Minister. The three were Dr. Francis Barnett, a well-respected medical doctor who, for years, has been courted by PNP officials and was once seen as heir apparent to Seymour Mullings; Carol Jackson, former MP/caretaker for North East St. Ann; and businesswoman and former teacher, Sheree Brown McDonald.

Dr. Barnett would, however, make it clear from the beginning that he had absolutely no interest in being the candidate. The party would then conduct a series of polls and soundings which reportedly showed Brown McDonald way ahead of the other contenders.Party General Secretary Donald Buchanan would later announce that other contenders had joined the race and that the only way to settle it was to have a run-off. The other aspirants were engineer Donald McDowell, environmentalist Bevon Morrison, and executive director of the Jamaica 4-H Clubs, Lenworth Fulton. The run-off had been planned for April 14 but at the eleventh hour, Buchanan announced that it had to be suspended as the voters' list was flawed.

To the surprise of many con-stituents, the Prime Minister revealed last week that former Miss World, Lisa Hanna, was the party's choice as candidate for South East St. Ann.