PASSING OF THE GREATEST GENERATION

We are losing the post-Independence generation, whose imaginations were fired by national pride and honour and who strove zealously to create a better Trinidad and Tobago.

They were in all areas of national and community endeavour – business, the professions, various vocations, sports, arts.

And they achieved.

Business and investments made historic strides, professionals challenged themselves to greater accomplishments, our culture exploded and we stunned the world on the sporting fields.

Dr. Mahase was one such example.

She carried a college crusade for competence and character capable of competing in the contemporary climate.

She was a standard-bearer for accomplishment.

With a lineage in education, she recognised that learning was the platform for students of these twin islands to become successful in the competitive, evolving world.

She was a pioneer, motivating traditionally neglected communities where there were few schools and fewer role models.

Dumas’ recent passing has cheated us of the conscience of the nation, a personality who courageously stood against the authorities for better governance.

He challenged every administration with equal gusto and daring.

When upstart Stuart Young attempted to censure Dumas, he reminded that he was serving T&T before the minister was born.

Dumas’ passing has left a gaping hole in the monitoring of the continuous undermining of independent institutions and politicisation of public offices.

Outside of select opposition politicians and a few scribes, it is now difficult to identify courageous public commentators or selfless crusaders.

Trade unions, business groups, academics, the church and other stakeholders have fallen silent.

Panday’s death at the start of the year mutes a movement for social and economic equity and better ethnic relations.

He had a singular vision for challenging the wealth gap and nurturing harmony and a common purpose among its people.

Mahase, Dumas and Panday are just three topical examples among many outstanding personalities who emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and attained success in various fields.

Hasely Crawford’s Olympic gold victory, for example, was driven by a personal yearning to triumph in an emerging nation determined to impress the world.

That immediate post-Independence cohort was defined by idealism, confidence and a grit to be achieve their potential.

Compare that burst of self-assurance and attainment with today’s T&T.

Sporting and artistic accomplishments are at a feeble low, the country lacking performers of the ilk of Sparrow, Kitchener, Lara, Yorke, Minshall, and the slew of other memorable self-starters.

The decline is reflected everywhere, including in the sub-quality of independent senators and respected public figures.

There are no more Michael de la Bastide, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, Ellis Clarke, Roy Neehall, or celebrated attorneys and other professionals.

Governance and discourse have steadily slumped, along with national standards and a general spirit to succeed.

It has a lot to do with the ever-lowering national leadership, which has exploited ethnic divisions instead of fostering unity and stimulating achievement.  

This current cohort of Trinidad and Tobago is not emulating the giants of the inspirational early red-white-and-black era.

We are losing our finest generation – and the future does not look bright.