President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Monday extended heartfelt condolences to the friends, family and members of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) on the passing of Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, hailing the late politician as “a public figure of conscience.”
Dr. Roopnaraine, 83, was the co-founder of the WPA and served as Ministers of Education and Public Service during the APNU+AFC 2015-2020 tenure in office.
“While we sat on different sides of the political aisle, I have always regarded Dr. Roopnaraine as belonging to that rare fellowship of men who wed thought to action and principle to sacrifice, especially during the testing years of the anti-dictatorship struggle.
“When the air itself seemed heavy with fear, he stood upright. He faced persecution not with bitterness, but with resolve. Alongside his comrade and friend, the late Walter Rodney, he helped to kindle a flame of resistance,” the President noted.
Dr. Roopnaraine’s party blamed the People’s National Congress (PNC) which led the APNU Coalition, for the death of its Leader Dr. Walter Rodney. However, Dr. Roopnaraine was critical to pushing the two parties to work together for national development.
The President noted that Dr. Roopnaraine was also a man of letters, a scholar whose mind moved with elegance across literature. He added that as a distinguished lecturer of Comparative Literature, he understood that ideas are among the most powerful instruments of liberation, something which he later carried into his portfolio in Parliament and as Minister of Education.
“He believed that education was the architecture of freedom—the patient building of minds capable of thought, dissent, and imagination,” Dr. Ali added.
“What set him apart, perhaps most enduringly, was his gentleness of spirit. In a political environment, often scarred by rancour and division, he chose civility. In debate, he was firm yet never cruel; in disagreement, principled yet never dismissive. He treated opponents not as enemies, but as fellow citizens. Across the political divide, he earned respect not by force of rhetoric, but by depth of character,” the President said.
He pointed out that Dr. Roopnaraine proved intellect need not be aloof, that politics need not be venomous, and that conviction need not harden the heart.
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