Region mourns loss of media icons

Ke­jan Haynes

News­gath­er­ing Ed­i­tor

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The Caribbean has lost two vi­sion­ary voic­es in the me­dia. Vet­er­an lo­cal broad­cast­er Hans Hanoomans­ingh and re­gion­al colum­nist Rick­ey Singh both passed away yes­ter­day.

Hanoomans­ingh’s pass­ing was con­firmed by his broth­er Gideon Hanoomans­ingh, who said fu­ner­al arrange­ments are be­ing fi­nalised. Hanoomans­ingh was 84.

“In re­sponse to the tremen­dous out­pour­ing via so­cial me­dia and phone calls, I con­firm with great sad­ness, the pass­ing of my dear broth­er Hans, a true pa­tri­ot of T&T whose con­tri­bu­tion to na­tion build­ing was self­less and ex­em­plary,” Gideon said. “Hans lived a life of prin­ci­ple, pur­pose, and qui­et strength. He gave every­thing to this coun­try, not for recog­ni­tion, but be­cause he be­lieved deeply in ser­vice. He was my broth­er, but he al­so be­longed to the na­tion.”

Across so­cial me­dia, col­leagues re­mem­bered Hanoomans­ingh as a pi­o­neer­ing jour­nal­ist, for­mer MP, and key fig­ure in pro­mot­ing In­do-Trinida­di­an cul­ture.

For­mer UNC min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj de­scribed him as “a jour­nal­ist, broad­cast­er, cul­tur­al icon, and pa­tri­ot whose voice helped shape the con­science of Trinidad and To­ba­go”. He cred­it­ed Hanoomans­ingh’s lead­er­ship at Ra­dio Trinidad and NBS for bring­ing in­tegri­ty and depth to na­tion­al dis­course, and high­light­ed his life­long ef­forts to up­lift In­di­an her­itage through me­dia.

Min­is­ter of Cul­ture Michelle Ben­jamin called him “a gi­ant of broad­cast­ing, a cul­tur­al cham­pi­on, and a true pa­tri­ot”, and praised his work in mak­ing In­do-Trinida­di­an her­itage part of the na­tion­al nar­ra­tive. She ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and the me­dia fra­ter­ni­ty.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said Hanoomans­ingh helped shape the na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion with “in­tel­lect and prin­ci­ple” and was deeply ad­mired for his calm au­thor­i­ty, thought­ful­ness, and in­tegri­ty.

“We give thanks for the life of a man who helped shape the na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion with in­tel­lect and prin­ci­ple,” she said. “This Hum­ming­bird Medal Gold Awardee is a loss not on­ly to the me­dia and cul­tur­al fra­ter­ni­ties, but to Trinidad and To­ba­go as a whole.”

She re­mem­bered him not just for his con­tri­bu­tions to Par­lia­ment and pub­lic ser­vice, but for the ex­am­ple he set in how to serve with dig­ni­ty and re­spect for those whose sto­ries he told.

Long­time friend and fel­low broad­cast­er Jai Paras­ram said Trinidad and To­ba­go is poor­er for the loss. Paras­ram re­called Hanoomans­ingh as both teacher and col­league, deeply in­volved in the de­vel­op­ment of Di­vali Na­gar and the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture. “At our last meet­ing in May, we dis­cussed a new cul­tur­al project he was work­ing on. We didn’t say good­bye,” he said.

Me­dia As­so­ci­a­tion in­ter­im pres­i­dent Dale Enoch added, “We mourn the pass­ing of two col­leagues, Hans Hanoomans­ingh in Trinidad and To­ba­go and Rick­ey Singh in Guyana. MATT ex­tends its deep­est con­do­lences. Two gi­ants in­deed.”

Singh, a pi­o­neer­ing Caribbean jour­nal­ist and found­ing pres­i­dent of the now-de­funct Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Me­dia Work­ers, died yes­ter­day at his home in Bar­ba­dos at age 88. He be­gan his ca­reer in 1957 and was recog­nised for decades of re­gion­al re­port­ing and com­men­tary, in­clud­ing a Life­time Achieve­ment Award from Guyana in 2023.

His ca­reer was marked by courage and con­fronta­tion, sur­viv­ing a lynch­ing at­tempt in Bux­ton, a ‘Death Squad’ en­counter in George­town, and a sus­pect­ed poi­son­ing. But it was his bold, un­com­pro­mis­ing po­lit­i­cal com­men­tary that made him a re­gion­al in­sti­tu­tion.

Vet­er­an jour­nal­ist Tony Fras­er wrote, “Rick­ey Singh was born in Guyana but be­longed to the Caribbean. He had prob­lems with Guyana’s au­to­crat­ic leader Forbes Burn­ham; in­deed, it’s best put that Burn­ham had prob­lems with Rick­ey’s in­de­pen­dence and re­fusal to sur­ren­der to him.”

Fras­er said Singh played a key role as ed­i­tor of Caribbean Con­tact, a re­gion­al news­pa­per owned by the Caribbean Con­fer­ence of Church­es, and as a long-time colum­nist for both Trinidad Guardian and Ex­press. “Thank you, Mr Singh, for giv­ing qual­i­ty jour­nal­ism to the Caribbean,” Fras­er added. “Bless­ings to him.”