Shuman debunks Clenkian’s allegations

DEPUTY SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY Mr. LENNOX SHUMAN
Tuesday debunked allegations levelled against him by outgoing Toshao of St Cuthbert’s Mission
Ms. Beverley Clenkian dismissing them as “all lies”.
Clenkian, who lost her re-election bid to eventual winner Mr. Timothy Andrews, accused
Shuman of spreading misinformation during the run-up to Sunday’s polls, used intimidatory
tactics against constituents loyal to her campaign and threatened that the government will
withdraw support to the community unless she is voted out.
Shuman preceded Clenkian as Toshao of the heavily-Amerindian community located in the
Mahaica River in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) which is the most densely-populated of the
10 Administrative Regions comprising Guyana.
In dismissing Clenkian’s allegations, Shuman to www.aroundtheregions.com in an exclusive that
it was a foregone conclusion that the educator would lose because of her “poor leadership”
which disillusioned the community.
As incumbent, Clenkian mustered only 23 votes in Sunday’s polls.
Shuman accused Clenkian of graft, claiming that some $1.2M of the community’s monies cannot
be accounted. He reasoned that residents cannot entrust their confidence in someone who is
visionless, ineffective and incompetent.
“If there is ever a reason why someone would have shown themselves unfit and improper for an
office it is evident in all of these accusations. It shows the mediocrity that existed in the
community for the past three years and the very fact that she cannot account for $1.2M of the
village’s funds in itself would have displaced the people’s confidence in her,” the deputy
Speaker said.

Among his criticisms of Clenkian, Shuman noted that nothing substantial emerged from her
three-year stewardship as Toshao.
“In fact, half of the community has descended into an absolute low within her tenure and it's
unfortunate because there were a lot of hopes on her shoulder being the first female Toshao that
she would have done significantly better and the community itself is in a dire state because of her
tenure,” the rookie legislator said.
He denied traversing, campaigning and/or canvassing for Andrews, a member of his political
party, or anyone. He said he merely provided “logistical support” to a candidate that he said the
people deemed as best for the community.
“The people obviously spoke and they elected that candidate. At the end of the day. I am a
community member, I have a responsibility to my community to see what is being done is in the
best interest of the community and I will place my confidence regardless of what office I hold in
the candidate that I believe will do the best for my community. (This is) very similar to what I do
at the national poll: I place my X in a party that I think that will address the issues that I am
sympathetic towards and I have done nothing different in the community,” Shuman argued.
Addressing Clenkian’s claims he said, “I never entered the community at any time, I never spoke
on anyone’s platform so I don’t see how they could be undue influence (or) advantage
campaigning for anyone.”
“She spoke about the cabin issue in the community. There was a cabin that was constructed
during my tenure to the tune of over $3M I think by the time we had finished the ground works;
it was close $5M. It is now a world-famous cabin, for that kind of investment what Miss
Clenkian could not have done was fund not even $200,000.00 for a $5M investment. It simply
demonstrates that there is an absence of business acumen, marketing capability or anything that
stands to develop the community and a complete absence in her mind,” the pilot-turned-
politician said.
He warned that Clenkian will account for the missing funds under her tenure.

“So instead of misappropriating village funds it may have been more prudent to account
for those funds or better yet invest it into something that could have been used to bring the
community money,” Shuman counselled.