HGP Nightly News – President Dr Irfaan Ali has paid a deeply personal and respectful tribute to the late Dr. Rupert Roopnarine, describing him as a “public figure of conscience” whose life bridged intellect and action, principle and sacrifice, across the divides of partisan politics.
In a statement reposted following Dr. Roopnarine’s passing, the President extended heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and comrades of the former Working People’s Alliance co-leader, acknowledging that while they sat on different sides of the political aisle, he regarded Roopnarine as belonging to “that rare fellowship of men who wed thought to action and principle to sacrifice.”
The tribute reached back to the darkest years of Guyana’s history, recalling Dr. Roopnarine’s role in the anti-dictatorship struggle. “When the air itself seemed heavy with fear, he stood upright,” the President wrote. “He faced persecution not with bitterness, but with resolve. Alongside his comrade and friend, the late Walter Rodney, he helped to kindle a flame of resistance.”
But the President’s reflection extended beyond the political. He remembered Roopnarine as a “man of letters, a scholar whose mind moved with elegance across literature.” A distinguished lecturer of Comparative Literature, Roopnarine understood that “ideas are among the most powerful instruments of liberation.”
In Parliament and later as Minister of Education, he carried that quiet scholarship into public service, believing that “education was the architecture of freedom, the patient building of minds capable of thought, dissent, and imagination.” What emerged most powerfully from the tribute, however, was the President’s emphasis on Roopnarine’s character. In a political environment “often scarred by rancour and division, he chose civility.”
In debate, he was “firm yet never cruel; in disagreement, principled yet never dismissive.” He treated opponents not as enemies, but as fellow citizens. Across the political divide, he earned respect “not by force of rhetoric, but by depth of character.”
It is a rare tribute from one political leader to another, acknowledging that the late activist and parliamentarian belonged to a fellowship that transcends party lines, a fellowship of those who serve with integrity, who resist with courage, and who disagree without dehumanising.
“His was a life that proved intellect need not be aloof, that politics need not be venomous, and that conviction need not harden the heart,” the President concluded. “May he rest in eternal peace.”
