KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

For­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment (MP) NiLe­ung Hy­po­lite is be­ing praised by his fam­i­ly and friends for his life of ser­vant­hood.

How­ev­er, some be­lieve for a man who left be­hind a lega­cy of ser­vice, the po­lit­i­cal par­ty he served should have done more to help him in his time of need.

In June, Hy­po­lite an­nounced his bat­tle with acute adult t-cell leukaemia, a rare and ag­gres­sive form of can­cer, that could not be treat­ed in the Caribbean.

He had been rais­ing funds for a bone mar­row trans­plant, the on­ly cure.

How­ev­er, he lost his bat­tle with the ill­ness on Oc­to­ber 19.

Giv­ing the eu­lo­gy at his fu­ner­al ser­vice held at All Saints An­gli­can Church in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, Hy­po­lite’s friend Brent McFee said, “There was some­what of an ex­pec­ta­tion for the peo­ple and in­sti­tu­tions that NiLe­ung served, to step in to serve him in his time of need. That did not man­i­fest it­self as was ex­pect­ed. I was on a group chat where a clar­i­on call to help save NiLe­ung’s life was made and the con­ver­sa­tion was like, “But ent he was an MP, why the Gov­ern­ment ain’t help him?”

Though the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­turn the favour of ser­vice to Hy­po­lite has passed, his PNM col­leagues say his work did not go un­no­ticed.

Al­so pay­ing trib­ute yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Fos­ter Cum­mings thanked Hy­po­lite’s fam­i­ly for his con­tri­bu­tions to the par­ty.

Cum­mings said, “We thank you for the time that you al­lowed him to spend with us as a par­ty and the con­tri­bu­tion that he made. NiLe­ung was one of those per­sons who cared deeply for his con­stituents and who would share what he had with them.”

Al­so pay­ing trib­ute yes­ter­day, for­mer PNM min­is­ter and for­mer San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo said Hy­po­lite played a key role in the par­ty dur­ing its tran­si­tion of lead­er­ship.

He said, “Good men not on­ly in­flu­ence change, but rather they are cat­a­lysts of change. Those of you who are fa­mil­iar with our par­ty’s his­to­ry will be aware of NiLe­ung’s role dur­ing the tran­si­tion of lead­er­ship. In fact, he was the one who was giv­en the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to dri­ve to Mr Man­ning’s home for Mr Man­ning to af­fix his sig­na­ture on the ap­point­ment of Dr Row­ley as the leader of the par­ty.”

Asked if more could have been done by the PNM to help Hy­po­lite, oth­er mem­bers said he did get some help.

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne said, “I can’t speak with a clear knowl­edge of every­thing that would have been done or not done. I can speak on my own be­half, work­ing with his wife, I found ways and there are many oth­ers who found ways to con­tribute to his med­ical care ... What we can do is look to the fu­ture as he would have done and en­sure that if any­one fal­ters or has needs, we find ways to as­sist.”

Al­so present at the fu­ner­al yes­ter­day, were oth­er Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters in­clud­ing Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les, Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon, Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian and for­mer sen­a­tor Lau­rel Leza­ma-Lee Sing.

Oth­er for­mer PNM col­leagues of the Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion were al­so present. These in­clude for­mer min­is­ter of state in the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment Ali­cia Hospedales, for­mer pub­lic util­i­ties min­is­ter Mustapha Ab­dul-Hamid and for­mer min­is­ter of agri­cul­ture, land and ma­rine re­sources Arnold Pig­got.

Born in 1970, NiLe­ung Roland Hy­po­lite at­tend­ed Bel­mont Boys’ Sec­ondary, now called St Fran­cis Boys’ Col­lege.

Dur­ing his tenure in pol­i­tics, he served as Laven­tille West MP from No­vem­ber 2007 to Ju­ly 2015.

He al­so served as a tem­po­rary sen­a­tor on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions. Af­ter leav­ing pol­i­tics, Hy­po­lite worked sev­er­al odd jobs to make ends meet be­fore land­ing a job at the Mar­itime Fi­nan­cial Group as a sales rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

Not just an MP but Hy­po­lite was al­so re­mem­bered as a hus­band, lov­ing fa­ther, stead­fast broth­er, un­cle, cousin and friend.