PNM stalwart Ferdie Ferreira dies at 93

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Re­porter

A gi­ant goes home.

An era in po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry end­ed yes­ter­day with the pass­ing of long­stand­ing leg­end Fer­di­nand “Fer­die” Fer­reira, whose death plunged the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in­to mourn­ing and trig­gered trib­utes from oth­er par­ties.

Ac­cord­ing to PNM of­fi­cials, Fer­reira, 93, died at 6.23 am, fol­low­ing com­pli­ca­tions from a stroke. He had been ward­ed at the San­gre Grande hos­pi­tal a few weeks ago. Fer­reira was then dis­charged but suf­fered an­oth­er episode and was tak­en to the Ari­ma Hos­pi­tal, where he died.

At Wednes­day’s meet­ing of the PNM’s cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive, mem­bers were ad­vised about Fer­reira’s de­clin­ing health and en­cour­aged to vis­it and pray for him.

Re­peat­ed­ly hailed through­out his life­time as a “walk­ing en­cy­clo­pe­dia” on T&T’s pol­i­tics, Fer­reira, who was born on Dun­don­ald Street, Port-of-Spain, in 1932, went on to be­come a leg­end in pol­i­tics.

A mem­ber of the But­ler Lib­er­a­tion move­ment in his teens, Fer­reira’s work­ing life saw him com­ing up through the ranks of the Port Au­thor­i­ty of Port-of-Spain, from a mes­sen­ger with a pri­ma­ry school ed­u­ca­tion to act­ing gen­er­al man­ag­er and port com­mis­sion­er.

Fer­reira was al­so an of­fi­cer of the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union, which yes­ter­day mourned his pass­ing.

Fer­reira, among the PNM found­ing mem­bers un­der Dr Er­ic Williams, broke ranks and was ex­pelled from that par­ty when he joined the late Karl Hud­son-Phillips as a foun­da­tion mem­ber of the Or­gan­i­sa­tion for Re­con­struc­tion (ONR). He re­turned to PNM in 1988.

A colour­ful, ar­tic­u­late speak­er and in­ci­sive an­a­lyst who held many po­lit­i­cal fig­ures to ac­count over the years—in­clud­ing PNM’s—Fer­reira’s alerts earned him the rep­u­ta­tion of be­ing a pro­lif­ic con­trib­u­tor to the me­dia on na­tion­al is­sues.

Yes­ter­day, for­mer me­dia prac­ti­tion­er Shelly Dass-Man­ning said Fer­reira’s death was a great loss of in­sti­tu­tion­al knowl­edge and mem­o­ry of a po­lit­i­cal par­ty in T&T.

Fer­reira’s ob­ser­va­tions over the years were chron­i­cled in two books—Po­lit­i­cal En­coun­ters 1946 to 2016—and his au­to­bi­og­ra­phy: Por­trait of a Pa­tri­ot.

In 2021, Fer­reira was award­ed a Doc­tor of Hu­mane Let­ters de­gree for his im­mense con­tri­bu­tion to pub­lic life.

Fer­reira’s wife Pearl died a year ago.

In 2020, both es­caped death af­ter their car was swept away in a flash flood in Mac­queripe. Fer­reira, then 88, pulled his wife, 83, out of the car.

Yes­ter­day, the PNM is­sued a state­ment hail­ing Fer­reira as an “ex­tra­or­di­nary man” and com­mis­er­at­ing with his three sur­viv­ing chil­dren.

His late son, Dr Lester Hen­ry, who died in 2022, was a PNM Sen­a­tor.

PNM said, “Small in stature, but mighty in mind and mis­sion. Present in Wood­ford Square as a young man for the launch of the PNM in Jan­u­ary 1956, he be­came a dis­ci­ple of the found­ing fa­ther, Dr Er­ic Williams, and was con­sid­ered the au­thor­i­ty on any­thing re­lat­ed to Dr Williams and the PNM’s foun­da­tion­al tenets.

“His un­can­ny abil­i­ty to pro­vide crit­i­cal analy­sis even while be­ing in the bel­ly of the beast earned him great re­spect across T&T.

“He con­sid­ered him­self ‘a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wood­ford Square,’ where he sat, learnt and shared amongst the mass­es. In his time, he would have been con­sid­ered a ‘park bench or­a­tor,’ or what we now re­fer to as a mod­ern-day ‘in­flu­encer.’”

PNM leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said, “As we mourn the pass­ing of Fer­die, we take so­lace in know­ing that a life lived in ser­vice, in­tegri­ty and de­vo­tion is ho­n­oured by God him­self.

“Fer­die is now at rest, free from the cares of this world and em­braced by the ever­last­ing peace of our Heav­en­ly Fa­ther.”

Beck­les said his pass­ing marks a pro­found loss for T&T, the PNM and all who ben­e­fit­ted from his wis­dom, con­vic­tion and pa­tri­o­tism.

“Fer­die was prin­ci­pled, hon­est, sharp and un­wa­ver­ing in his com­mit­ment to the peo­ple. He spoke with clar­i­ty, lived with pur­pose and of­fered coun­sel with courage.”

For­mer PNM leader and prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley joined in re­mem­ber­ing him.

“Mr Fer­reira was more than a mem­ber; he was a guardian of our prin­ci­ples, a voice of con­vic­tion and a liv­ing re­minder of the sac­ri­fices and ded­i­ca­tion that built the foun­da­tion up­on which we stand to­day. His loy­al­ty and sup­port to the PNM were un­wa­ver­ing, his coun­sel in­valu­able, and his pres­ence a source of strength and con­ti­nu­ity across mul­ti­ple gen­er­a­tions.

“In mourn­ing his loss, we al­so cel­e­brate his life—a life de­fined by pa­tri­o­tism, re­silience and an un­yield­ing be­lief in the pow­er of col­lec­tive ser­vice.

“Mr Fer­reira’s con­tri­bu­tions will for­ev­er re­main part of the PNM’s lega­cy and the na­tion­al sto­ry of T&T.”

North/St Ann’s West MP and for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young said, “A PNM gi­ant and a pa­tri­ot has tran­si­tioned. Fer­die was a foun­tain of knowl­edge and his­to­ry. Thank you, Fer­die Fer­reira, for all that you con­tributed to the de­vel­op­ment of our coun­try and the PNM.”

For­mer PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford, who vis­it­ed Fer­reira in hos­pi­tal, re­mem­bered his con­tri­bu­tions.

“Fer­die held up a mir­ror to T&T’s pol­i­tics for over 60 years. His as­tute knowl­edge of per­son­al­i­ties and is­sues—past and present—was sec­ond to none … When nec­es­sary, he put coun­try be­fore self and par­ty … he serves as our con­science, of­fer­ing ad­vice to ground troops and lead­er­ship with a wis­dom that can on­ly be ac­quired through decades of true ser­vice.”

De­scrib­ing Fer­reira as one who “walked the walk,” for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds said, “It’s a huge loss to the PNM and T&T, he was prin­ci­pled, po­lit­i­cal­ly savvy and as­tute—the one per­son in the PNM you count on for facts, mem­o­ries and his­to­ry to guide us.”

Hinds said he learned a lot about his fa­ther—a dock work­er—from Fer­reira, who al­so stood up for Hinds when he sought to be­come a PNM can­di­date in 1995, while some raised con­cerns about Hinds’ Rasta­far­i­an lifestyle.

Vet­er­an PNM mem­ber Overand Pad­more, 93, de­tailed how he and Fer­reira were PNM foot sol­diers to­geth­er, “Go­ing through the highs and lows to­geth­er, the falling ins and outs to­geth­er ... he was a repos­i­to­ry of PNM’s his­to­ry.”

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress deputy leader Roodal Mooni­lal ex­pressed his deep­est con­do­lences to Fer­reira's fam­i­ly and friends.

"He's been a keen par­tic­i­pant and com­men­ta­tor on pub­lic and po­lit­i­cal af­fairs for decades. I think we dis­agreed 50 per cent of the times we ar­gued and vi­o­lent­ly dis­agreed the next 50 per cent. But he was al­ways pas­sion­ate about his par­ty and ser­vice to T&T.

"We shared many light mo­ments with mu­tu­al friends and col­lab­o­ra­tors dur­ing which I al­so learned a lot of what not to do in pub­lic life.

"His en­cy­clo­pe­dic mind and foren­sic knowl­edge of the his­to­ry of the PNM and Dr Er­ic Williams stood out as a good guide to stu­dents of pol­i­tics and those at­tract­ed to pub­lic ser­vice. May his soul rest in peace."

Ex-Con­gress of the Peo­ple leader/NAR of­fi­cial Win­ston Dook­er­an de­scribed Fer­reira as a "foun­da­tion stone in our In­de­pen­dence jour­ney."

"A sim­ple man of hu­mil­i­ty whose life lessons will nev­er be erased – al­ways in search for a high­er free­dom for our T&T."

ONR/NAR foun­da­tion mem­ber An­tho­ny Smart, who vis­it­ed Fer­reira in hos­pi­tal up to last Sun­day, said, "Even up to just be­fore his stroke, a group of us would meet at a restau­rant every Fri­day. We met in 1979 when we formed the ONR. His is­sue with the PNM was how Dr Williams treat­ed him, but once Williams died, he drift­ed back to PNM.

"We’ve lost a man who had a tremen­dous pow­er of analy­sis; luck­i­ly, his books pro­vide a valu­able trea­sure trove of in­for­ma­tion."

For­mer UNC Min­is­ter/ NAR Port Au­thor­i­ty chair­man Car­los John said Fer­reira's pass­ing is the end of a "very colour­ful in­nings."

"A life well lived. I was al­ways im­pressed with his unique style and ‘grass­roots' ap­proach to pol­i­tics.

"Fer­die pos­sessed a re­mark­able mem­o­ry re­gard­ing po­lit­i­cal mat­ters. A true pa­tri­ot and loy­al, faith­ful friend."

For­mer NAR Min­is­ter Her­bert Atwell de­scribed Fer­reira as an "eru­dite fel­low with an ex­cel­lent mem­o­ry, com­mit­ted to his pur­suits and ob­jec­tives."

"A very hu­mor­ous per­son who liked to give his­tor­i­cal sto­ries - es­pe­cial­ly about Dr Williams… he’ll be missed."