PM pays tribute to former NAR minister Herbert Atwell

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has paid trib­ute to for­mer Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) min­is­ter Her­bert Atwell fol­low­ing his death over the week­end, de­scrib­ing him as part of a gen­er­a­tion of po­lit­i­cal lead­ers who helped shape Trinidad and To­ba­go’s democ­ra­cy dur­ing one of its most defin­ing pe­ri­ods.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was “deeply sad­dened” to learn of Atwell’s pass­ing and ex­tend­ed con­do­lences on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Mr Atwell served Trinidad and To­ba­go dur­ing an im­por­tant and trans­for­ma­tive pe­ri­od in our na­tion’s po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry and was among those en­trust­ed with na­tion­al lead­er­ship dur­ing the NAR ad­min­is­tra­tion of 1986,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­called work­ing along­side Atwell dur­ing that era and said she re­mem­bered him not on­ly as a for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, but al­so as “part of a gen­er­a­tion of po­lit­i­cal fig­ures who con­tributed to the na­tion­al dis­course and de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go dur­ing a defin­ing pe­ri­od in our democ­ra­cy.”

Atwell was a promi­nent fig­ure in T&T pol­i­tics dur­ing the late 1980s and ear­ly 1990s.

He served as a Sen­a­tor and held sev­er­al key Cab­i­net port­fo­lios dur­ing the NAR gov­ern­ment be­tween 1986 and 1991, in­clud­ing Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Cit­i­zen­ship and Min­is­ter of En­er­gy. He al­so served as chair­man of the NAR dur­ing a po­lit­i­cal­ly tur­bu­lent pe­ri­od marked by eco­nom­ic chal­lenges, so­cial un­rest and con­sti­tu­tion­al ten­sions.

His most no­table role came dur­ing the at­tempt­ed 1990 coup by the Ja­maat al Mus­limeen, one of the dark­est chap­ters in the na­tion’s his­to­ry.

While Prime Min­is­ter ANR Robin­son and sev­er­al se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials were held hostage at the Red House, Atwell op­er­at­ed from Camp Og­den, where he be­came a cen­tral fig­ure in man­ag­ing the State’s re­sponse to the cri­sis.

Atwell played a piv­otal role in co­or­di­nat­ing le­gal and strate­gic ne­go­ti­a­tions aimed at end­ing the six-day hostage or­deal.

He was close­ly in­volved in the draft­ing and de­liv­ery of an amnesty doc­u­ment pre­sent­ed to the in­sur­gents, a doc­u­ment lat­er deemed legal­ly in­ef­fec­tive, but one which helped se­cure the safe re­lease of the hostages with­out per­ma­nent­ly bind­ing the State to im­mu­ni­ty agree­ments.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that pub­lic ser­vice de­mand­ed “sac­ri­fice, com­mit­ment and a will­ing­ness to ded­i­cate one­self to the peo­ple of the coun­try,” adding that Atwell “an­swered that call to na­tion­al ser­vice and de­vot­ed years of his life to pub­lic af­fairs and to the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the peo­ple.”

She al­so re­flect­ed on the wider lega­cy of po­lit­i­cal lead­ers from that pe­ri­od, say­ing mo­ments such as these re­mind­ed cit­i­zens “of the con­tri­bu­tions of those who helped shape our na­tion’s po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry and de­mo­c­ra­t­ic de­vel­op­ment over the decades.”

The Prime Min­is­ter ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Atwell’s fam­i­ly, loved ones, for­mer col­leagues and friends, as trib­utes con­tin­ued to emerge fol­low­ing news of his pass­ing.

“May God grant Her­bert Atwell eter­nal peace, and may His strength and com­fort re­main with all who grieve this loss,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.