Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The sound of solemn Hin­di bha­jans filled the JE Guides Fu­ner­al Home in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day, as fam­i­ly, friends and po­lit­i­cal lead­ers gath­ered to bid farewell to Dr Lenny Saith, a stal­wart of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and one of its most en­dur­ing fig­ures.

Saith, who served as deputy leader, chair­man and cab­i­net min­is­ter, was re­mem­bered not on­ly for his po­lit­i­cal ser­vice but for his hu­mil­i­ty, qui­et strength and op­ti­mism for the na­tion he loved.

The fu­ner­al home’s chapel was filled to ca­pac­i­ty long be­fore the ser­vice be­gan. Men and women dressed in mut­ed tones whis­pered greet­ings and ex­changed mem­o­ries of a man revered for his de­vo­tion to the coun­try.

One of the most touch­ing mo­ments came from Saith’s daugh­ter Ma­li­ni Dod­damani, who of­fered a glimpse in­to her fa­ther’s pri­vate life.

In a fam­i­ly of many voic­es, Dod­damani said her fa­ther stood apart for his re­straint.

“He had a gift for us­ing few words in a fam­i­ly of many,” she re­called.

Her trib­ute paint­ed a por­trait of a man who was not on­ly a pub­lic ser­vant but a fa­ther who led with qui­et strength, of­fer­ing his fam­i­ly the same guid­ance and wis­dom he gave to the na­tion.

“He was born in­to a fam­i­ly of mod­est means, rid­ing a bi­cy­cle from Ch­agua­nas to QRC, grow­ing up wear­ing washed flour sack shirts that his moth­er made and shar­ing a bed with his sib­lings. I re­mem­ber him telling a sto­ry of go­ing to high school with no socks and him be­ing teased so mer­ci­less­ly that he had to go and get socks, and from those hum­ble be­gin­nings, he earned schol­ar­ships that took him across the world.”

Her words drew tears from sev­er­al in the au­di­ence, re­mind­ing those gath­ered that Saith’s lega­cy was not on­ly po­lit­i­cal but deeply per­son­al.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les was among those to lead the trib­utes on be­half of the PNM. She high­light­ed the breadth of Saith’s con­tri­bu­tions to the par­ty and to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. Beck­les de­scribed him as a man of deep con­vic­tion who placed ser­vice above self.

She said, “I had the great for­tune of sit­ting next to him in Cab­i­net. For me, it was Dr Saith’s punc­tu­al­i­ty. Sit­ting next to him means you got a lot of op­por­tu­ni­ties to be ed­u­cat­ed and know him a lit­tle bet­ter. When he chaired his meet­ings, if it was at 9 o’clock, he was start­ing at 8.55. As a young politi­cian, you learn about time and dis­ci­pline. He was very metic­u­lous.”

Ac­cord­ing to Beck­les, Saith was help­ful and gen­er­ous with his ad­vice.

“He was al­ways qui­et, hum­ble, and he was close to Mr Man­ning, and it was the op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn from him.”

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley al­so spoke with Guardian Me­dia af­ter­wards, de­liv­er­ing a heart­felt re­flec­tion on Saith’s role in both par­ty and to coun­try.

“He was an out­stand­ing cit­i­zen who made him­self avail­able to his col­leagues and cit­i­zens of the na­tion. I’ve worked with him for 38 years, and I have him down as one of our ex­em­plars as a cit­i­zen. He was a man who was supreme­ly op­ti­mistic about this coun­try and be­lieved in it and worked to­wards bet­ter­ing it. I learnt a lot from him, his tem­pera­ment, hu­mil­i­ty and con­fi­dence.”

Row­ley said he was proud to have worked with Saith, adding he was in­flu­en­tial in his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer.

A lega­cy of ser­vice

Among those present were for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, who cred­it­ed Saith with shap­ing their po­lit­i­cal jour­neys.

For­mer Ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ters Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, Fos­ter Cum­mings, Bri­an Man­ning and Ter­rence Deyals­ingh each paid their re­spects, re­call­ing mo­ments of men­tor­ship and guid­ance from the late leader.

Deyals­ingh not­ed that Saith car­ried him­self with dig­ni­ty and re­mind­ed him that ser­vice was not about self-pro­mo­tion but about na­tion-build­ing.

“Dr Saith was some­one I turned to for good ad­vice. As a very ex­pe­ri­enced politi­cian, he was al­ways avail­able to me, and I cher­ish those con­ver­sa­tions in my ear­ly days, and any­one who gives their life to pub­lic ser­vice ought to be cel­e­brat­ed,” he said.

Gads­by-Dol­ly said Saith em­bod­ied the very best of what the PNM as­pired to be.

“He was like a leg­end in the PNM. He op­er­at­ed be­fore I came in­to the PNM, and one of the things we al­ways ad­mired was his ef­fi­cien­cy and his abil­i­ty to or­gan­ise, and that is some­thing I will al­ways re­mem­ber, and he will stand out for in the PNM,” she said.

A gen­tle pres­ence in a tough are­na

Saith’s rep­u­ta­tion with­in po­lit­i­cal cir­cles was one of steady hands and calm lead­er­ship. While pol­i­tics in T&T has of­ten been marked by fierce bat­tles and heat­ed rhetoric, he was re­mem­bered for his abil­i­ty to defuse ten­sions, lis­ten care­ful­ly and steer con­ver­sa­tions to­ward so­lu­tions rather than con­flict.

At yes­ter­day’s ser­vice, anec­dotes about his tem­pera­ment drew bit­ter­sweet smiles.

Saith’s grand­daugh­ter, Lekha Dod­damani, re­count­ed him be­yond the po­lit­i­cal are­na.

“My grand­fa­ther was a qui­et man, while most of you would re­mem­ber him for his time in gov­ern­ment and for­ward-think­ing ideas, I re­mem­ber him sim­ply. My grand­fa­ther was a man of great achieve­ment in­deed but what I take away from his life is not the enor­mous­ness of his sto­ry but the hu­mil­i­ty in which he car­ried him­self.”

Dod­damani said her grand­fa­ther had an en­dur­ing life, one filled with sac­ri­fice and sim­plic­i­ty.

A na­tion in mourn­ing

Out­side the fu­ner­al home, the air was heavy with the sense of an era pass­ing. For many in at­ten­dance, Saith, who died on Mon­day at the age of 90, rep­re­sent­ed a link to a pe­ri­od of po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry when par­ty loy­al­ty and na­tion­al ser­vice were deeply in­ter­twined.

Peo­ple told Guardian Me­dia that Saith left be­hind a lega­cy not eas­i­ly mea­sured by ti­tles or po­si­tions held and that his work with­in the PNM and his ser­vice to the na­tion, which spanned decades, shaped poli­cies and men­tored gen­er­a­tions of lead­ers, would not be for­got­ten.