The Caribbean media and Caribbean Group (CARICOM) leaders have paid tribute to Guyanese-born veteran regional journalist Rickey Singh, who died in his adopted homeland in Barbados on Saturday, June 5. He was 88.
The Georgetown, Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat on Monday, July 7, prolonged condolences to Singh’s family members and colleagues, describing Singh as “a Caribbean son of the soil and journalist par excellence.”
CARICOM stated, “For greater than 5 many years, Singh served as a pillar of journalism within the area. His unwavering dedication to his craft, sharp analyses, and fearless pursuit of reality earned him respect and admiration throughout the area,” it stated.
“Rickey, as he was popularly identified, was a passionate advocate for our regional integration motion. His work facilitated a deeper understanding of the Caribbean Group.
“He had a profound understanding of the area’s political panorama and supplied views that had been each insightful and instructive,” CARICOM added. “This was invaluable to the folks of the Group within the early days of our integration motion.
“His was a powerful and constant voice in protection of press freedom, championing the very important function of impartial journalism in strengthening our democracies,” it continued. “The Group mourns the lack of a dedicated regionalist and media titan. Might his legacy proceed to encourage future generations of Caribbean journalists.”
In a separate assertion, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley stated that Singh’s dying “really confirms that we’re witnessing the top of an period in Caribbean journalism that produced a cadre of veterans who epitomized a spirit of regional cooperation and togetherness even when political leaders nonetheless struggled with the idea.
“Whether or not it was in his native Guyana, Trinidad, or Barbados, which he known as dwelling for greater than 4 many years, Rickey’s was a family title,” the Barbadian chief stated.
“As we put together to mirror on our future as a area and the necessity for solidarity, as we navigate the doubtless treacherous waters forward of us, Rickey’s dedication to regionalism over insularity should be high of thoughts for all of us,” she added.
“Rickey was 100 % a Caribbean journalist,” Mottley continued. “He has left a legacy that any younger journalist with a real curiosity in constructing a popularity primarily based on integrity would do nicely to emulate.”
The Barbados Nation stated Singh, who lived and labored in a number of Caribbean nations, shared his “opinions and analyses of points affecting the folks of the area.”
Singh’s column, “Our Caribbean,” was revealed in The Nation. The Nation stated he was additionally an everyday contributor to publications in Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The publication stated that, after finishing his British Abroad Superior Stage topics, Singh “landed a job on the Guyana Chronicle, the place at age 18, he was invited to write down for the Junior Chronicle.
“Singh moved by way of the ranks from reporter to editor, and his focus finally grew to become the political beat,” The Nation stated. “From the Guyana Chronicle to the Guyana Graphic, he continued to write down, drawing the ire of then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, who usually disagreed together with his analyses. The state finally purchased the publication, leaving him with out a job.”
The Nation stated Singh then departed Guyana for Trinidad and Tobago, the place he “once more fell afoul of a politician, branded a communist for supporting the cold coup in Grenada beneath Maurice Bishop.
“Together with his work allow not being renewed, he got here to Barbados,” The Nation stated. “This time, it was late Prime Minister Tom Adam, who took exception to his feedback in The Nation and didn’t renew his work allow.
“Singh’s household – his spouse Dolly and the kids – remained in Barbados, and he roamed the Caribbean as a freelancer,” it added.
After Adams’ dying in 1985, The Nation stated Singh was invited to return to Barbados however “refused the work allow in favor of the proper to have the ability to reside and work as a citizen.”
The Nation stated Singh “continued to pen columns from his dwelling in Strathclyde, St. Michael, Barbados.”
It stated Singh “by no means labored for one more newspaper, however his work appeared within the publications which supported him when he was roaming.”
In 2002, The Nation famous that the College of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus conferred an honorary Physician of Letters on Singh.
“I see journalism as probably the most very important occupation within the postcolonial restructuring of the Caribbean,” The Nation quoted Singh in an interview with The Nation’s Sunday Solar at the moment.
“As journalists, we have now a social accountability: we’re the gatekeepers of society, the conveyor belt of competing views, serving to to stimulate knowledgeable public debates,” he added. “Journalism is my life. I believe and breathe information.”
The Trinidad Guardian described Singh as “certainly one of its most revered voices” in regional journalism. His work spanned many years, international locations, and a few of the Caribbean’s most defining political moments.
“Singh’s journalistic journey was marked by braveness, tenacity, and a aptitude for uncovering the untold,” the paper stated. “His profession was punctuated with dramatic and infrequently perilous moments — from narrowly escaping a lynching whereas on task in Buxton (Guyana), to surviving an encounter with a infamous ‘Loss of life Squad’ in Georgetown’s (Guyana’s capital) Botanical Gardens, and even a near-fatal poisoning incident at work.
“But, maybe most memorable had been his daring and unflinching exchanges with a few of the Caribbean’s most formidable political figures — encounters that not solely outlined his profession but additionally helped form regional discourse,” The Trinidad Guardian added.
Guyana’s Demarara Waves stated that the Guyana Press Affiliation (GPA) prolonged condolences to Singh’s household, mates and regional media colleagues, noting that Singh “contributed to a number of wire providers and publications within the area, together with the BBC Caribbean Report and Caribbean Information Company (CANA), in addition to providers in North America and Britain.”
Demarara Waves stated Singh, who was acknowledged with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Guyana, was additionally the founder and first president of the now-defunct Caribbean Affiliation of Media Staff (CAMWORK).
Barbados As we speak stated, “Singh earned widespread respect as one of many Caribbean’s most trusted voices on regional politics and present affairs.
“His reporting and commentary spanned over 5 many years and chronicled most of the area’s pivotal moments,” stated the publication, stating that these included the December 1979 rebellion in Union Island within the southern St, Vincent Grenadines; the overthrow of Grenadian Prime Minister Sir Eric Matthew Gairy in 1979; the following execution of Grenada’s charismatic chief Maurice Bishop in 1983; the USA intervention in Grenada that very same 12 months; the assassination of Guyanese historian Walter Rodney on Jun. 13, 1980; and the tried coup in Trinidad and Tobago in 1990.
Barbados As we speak additionally stated that “Singh’s legacy was additional formed by his work within the Nineteen Seventies as editor of Caribbean Contact, a regional newspaper produced by the Caribbean Convention of Church buildings and revealed from Barbados.”
In his tribute to Singh, veteran and highly-respected Barbadian-born journalist Julian Rogers stated that Singh was a “Caribbean man, born in Georgetown, however a resident of the area – a journalist, commentator, columnist, mentor, father and a lot extra.
“Rickey Singh dedicated greater than most to a area that handled him with each respect and disrespect,” Rogers stated. “He was trusted and distrusted by political leaders, typically each without delay.
“His voice was broadly admired, although not universally embraced,” he added. “But, by way of all of it, Rickey endured. He set a gold normal in regional journalism, one few of us may hope to achieve.
“However it was that normal that earned him belief, a lot in order that he had many CARICOM leaders on velocity dial,” Rogers continued. “These of us who coated CARICOM summits knew, if there was a ultimate communiqué, Rickey had helped form it. When points grew to become contentious, it was Rickey who obtained to the kernel of reality, his exposés usually resulting in quiet resolutions behind closed doorways.
“Rickey’s wealthy legacy just isn’t one thing left in a will,” he stated. “He wouldn’t anticipate us to attend for probate. He would anticipate us to hold on, understanding the task, as a result of that is our Caribbean Nation to serve, wherever we might reside. And Rickey confirmed us how.”
Singh’s physique will probably be interred in Barbados on July 16.
