DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

The life and lega­cy of Fer­di­nand “Fer­die” Fer­reira—po­lit­i­cal or­gan­is­er, trade union­ist and life­long ad­vo­cate for the work­ing class—was cel­e­brat­ed yes­ter­day as fam­i­ly, friends and politi­cians gath­ered to bid farewell to a man wide­ly de­scribed as a con­science of pol­i­tics and a liv­ing li­brary of the na­tion’s his­to­ry.

Fer­reira, 93, a stal­wart of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), was re­mem­bered as a grass­roots fig­ure who rose from hum­ble be­gin­nings to be­come one of the most in­flu­en­tial voic­es in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­lit­i­cal life.

His in­flu­ence, mourn­ers said, was nev­er root­ed in of­fice or ti­tle, but in his abil­i­ty to con­nect with or­di­nary peo­ple while of­fer­ing prin­ci­pled guid­ance to those in pow­er.

Just four years ago, his decades of ser­vice to pol­i­tics, labour and civic life were for­mal­ly recog­nised when he re­ceived an hon­orary doc­tor­ate of hu­mane let­ters from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Speak­ers at his fu­ner­al said the award re­flect­ed a life­time spent or­gan­is­ing, ed­u­cat­ing and chal­leng­ing, of­ten be­hind the scenes, but al­ways with con­vic­tion.

For­mer PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford re­called that even in his fi­nal days, Fer­reira re­mained an ac­tive and re­spect­ed ad­vis­er with­in the par­ty, bridg­ing gen­er­a­tions and re­mind­ing lead­ers of their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties to the base.

“Born in an era when politi­cians were he­roes, he could take is­sue with­out of­fend­ing any­one. That, some may say, is ab­sent in to­day’s realm. Up to the time of his death, Fer­die served as our con­science, of­fer­ing ad­vice to the ground troop and to the lead­er­ship with the wis­dom that can on­ly be ac­quired through decades of true ser­vice. Fer­die rep­re­sent­ed the very best of us,” Ford said.

For­mer gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the Or­gan­i­sa­tion for Na­tion­al Re­con­struc­tion (ONR), An­tho­ny Smart, re­flect­ed on Fer­reira’s long po­lit­i­cal jour­ney, re­call­ing his sharp wit and in­de­pen­dence of thought.

As Cap­tain Rawle Badaloe ren­dered a fi­nal salute, the ser­vice shift­ed from pub­lic life to pri­vate mem­o­ry, with Fer­reira’s grand­daugh­ter of­fer­ing a deeply per­son­al re­flec­tion that cap­tured the breadth of his char­ac­ter.

“Zeal­ous, ded­i­cat­ed, open-mind­ed. These are just a few of the words that come to mind when we re­flect on a man who lived such a full and mean­ing­ful life,” she said.

Close friend Dr Sheila Ram­per­sad re­mem­bered Fer­reira’s fear­less­ness, cit­ing an ar­ti­cle by jour­nal­ist Patrick Chookolin­go to il­lus­trate his will­ing­ness to chal­lenge au­thor­i­ty, even with­in his own par­ty.

She re­called his first book, Po­lit­i­cal En­coun­ters, and his lat­er work, Por­traits of a Pa­tri­ot.

She said Fer­reira wrote so ex­ten­sive­ly that he ef­fec­tive­ly penned his own eu­lo­gy, con­tained with­in the pages of his fi­nal book.

From an ear­ly age, Fer­reira’s pas­sion for pol­i­tics was un­mis­tak­able. As a young man, he was a fa­mil­iar fig­ure in Wood­ford Square, mega­phone in hand, call­ing cit­i­zens to ac­tion and urg­ing them to think crit­i­cal­ly about pow­er and jus­tice.

His broth­er, Roy Fer­reira, re­called those ear­ly days.

“When I walk across, Fer­die with a mega­phone. The mega­phone big­ger than him. And he talk­ing about so­cial this and so­cial that and the small man and the work­ing man,” he said.

Fer­reira’s deep ties to the labour move­ment were high­light­ed by Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union pres­i­dent Michael An­nisette, who at­tend­ed the fu­ner­al de­spite hav­ing buried his own son ear­li­er that day. He de­scribed Fer­reira as a men­tor, a pa­tri­ot and a war­rior for jus­tice, deeply in­vest­ed in the po­lit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of work­ers.

“I re­mem­ber, and I must say it to­day, that dur­ing the last elec­tions he told...why it is that the PNM do not have some­body in the labour move­ment in this elec­tion. That was the burn­ing de­sire of his, and it did hurt him,” An­nisette said.

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, whom Fer­reira ad­vised for years, said the coun­try had lost a rare and valu­able voice.

“He didn’t put him­self in the pic­ture as try­ing to pro­mote him­self. He gave you good ad­vice, and he would not be afraid to tell you what you re­al­ly didn’t want to hear. And af­ter he told you, you thanked him for telling you be­cause he steered you away from all kind of pit­falls,” Row­ley said.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pene­lope Beck­les said Fer­reira’s guid­ance helped shape her po­lit­i­cal jour­ney, de­scrib­ing his ad­vice as both prac­ti­cal and ground­ed.

Beck­les said the PNM had planned for Fer­reira to speak at the par­ty’s 70th an­niver­sary next year, not­ing that he had been ho­n­oured many times by the or­gan­i­sa­tion he served for decades.

Fol­low­ing the ser­vice, Fer­reira was cre­mat­ed at Clark and Bat­too Fu­ner­al Home.

Among those in at­ten­dance at his fu­ner­al were PNM stal­wart Joan Yuille Williams, Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus, MPs Stu­art Young, Hans Des Vi­gnes, Do­minic Ro­main and Mar­vin Gon­za­les, Ari­ma May­or Bal­li­ram Ma­haraj, and sev­er­al oth­er po­lit­i­cal and civic lead­ers.