KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

With the pass­ing of for­mer min­is­ter of Youth, Sport, Cul­ture and the Cre­ative Arts Jen­nifer John­son, col­leagues and friends re­called fond mem­o­ries of their times to­geth­er.

John­son, a for­mer Princes Town MP un­der the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR), was one of two fe­male MPs at the Red House when armed Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen in­sur­rec­tion­ists stormed in and held mem­bers cap­tive. She was two weeks shy of her 77th birth­day when she died at her home on Wednes­day.

Though al­so she served dur­ing one of T&T’s most trau­mat­ic events, her for­mer col­league and min­is­ter of Plan­ning and Mo­bil­i­sa­tion, Win­ston Dook­er­an, re­mem­bered the com­pas­sion she showed dur­ing the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup.

Deeply sad­dened by John­son’s death, Dook­er­an de­scribed her as his af­fa­ble Cab­i­net col­league.

“I re­mem­ber vivid­ly dur­ing the 1990 coup, Jen­nifer was stand­ing next to me in the Par­lia­ment, and on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions, we had to com­fort each oth­er. I al­so know her as a friend. Her hus­band I knew very well. I ex­tend my deep­est con­do­lences to them,” Dook­er­an said.

Dook­er­an said John­son played a vi­tal role in T&T’s pol­i­tics, adding that she was a re­li­able par­ty stal­wart who was al­ways will­ing to play the game of good gov­er­nance.

Dook­er­an said John­son nev­er al­lowed mi­nor is­sues to di­vide her pol­i­tics.

NAR po­lit­i­cal leader and for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Works, In­fra­struc­ture and De­cen­tral­i­sa­tion, Dr Car­son Charles, re­called be­ing the youngest mem­ber of the Par­lia­ment when he shared the Cham­ber with John­son. Charles said the NAR fam­i­ly feels deep emo­tions when­ev­er a col­league dies.

“Jen­nifer was a friend and po­lit­i­cal col­league. We were com­rades in arms when we were try­ing to make a bet­ter place for the gen­er­a­tions to come in the coun­try. I, for one, miss her very dear­ly, and I hope that what she worked for when she worked with us will al­ways re­main alive,” Charles said.

For­mer min­is­ter of Fi­nance and the Econ­o­my Sel­by Wil­son was shak­en when con­tact­ed by Guardian Me­dia, as it was the first time he heard of John­son’s pass­ing.

Wil­son de­scribed her as a ded­i­cat­ed gov­ern­ment min­is­ter who made a re­mark­able con­tri­bu­tion to T&T dur­ing dif­fi­cult times. 

Fol­low­ing the NAR’s gen­er­al elec­tion de­feat in 1991, John­son con­test­ed the San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy but lost to for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning.

She lat­er left the NAR, where she served as gen­er­al sec­re­tary, to join the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and presided as Youth Of­fi­cer Fe­male from 2003-2005.

The PNM’s  Na­tion­al Women’s League al­so ex­pressed con­do­lences, laud­ing John­son for her qui­et courage dur­ing the at­tempt­ed coup. 

The league said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with her fam­i­ly and friends. We pray that Almighty God com­forts them dur­ing their time of grief.”

Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to John­son’s fam­i­ly.

Padarath said John­son made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of T&T.