Mourners applaud ex-San Fernando mayor's life at his funeral

AS he performed the final rites over the body of the late Dr Romesh Mootoo, pundit Surendra Maharaj broke protocol to ask mourners to applaud him for the wonderful and outstanding life of service he lived.

He said Mootoo, 86, lived a wonderful life and fulfilled his duties as a husband, father, grandfather, doctor, politician and friend.

“What we do in this life, others will emulate and follow. Certainly, Dr Mootoo has left much for us to emulate and follow in this world.”

Mootoo, who served as a senator and mayor of San Fernando during the tenure of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), died last Friday of covid19.

His body was cremated after a funeral at J E Guides Funeral Home, San Fernando, on Thursday morning.

Glowing tributes were paid to Mootoo, who was remembered for his daring personality, driving and crashing his father’s new Pontiac as an unlicensed teenager, and his sense of humour.

His love of family, cigarettes and wine, his golfing, magical and oratory skills and lifetime membership of the “F-Club” – Friendship Club – were continuoally repeated.

Mootoo’s cousin Dr Robin Rajcoomar recalled he was a member of the International Magician Association, quipping that he was such a good magician, sometimes he disappeared for days and not even his late wife, Indra, knew where he was.

His son Dr Ramesh Mootoo Jr spoke of his remarkable vocabulary, saying this was developed because he was often compared to his cousin, Nobel laureate VS Naipaul, causing him to read the Oxford dictionary from cover to cover.

In his tribute, close friend and political colleague Winston Dookeran said his death marked the end of a flamboyant career in politics, a memorable practice in medicine, a strong advocate for a good society and a dedicated family man. He said Mootoo’s children would agree that his was a “story of magical powers.”

He said Mootoo had built the Surgi-Med Medical Centre when such facilities were scarce in San Fernando, and often treated patients free of charge.

“From early, he expressed the magical power of a visionary. First, in his children, as he and Indra nourished their individual unique talents.

“In politics, he also had that magical power and discussed openly his political secrets with his friends, the late Drs Ivan Perot, Sankar Moonan and Ian Seukeran, often at Marsang’s Restaurant, Todd Street, San Fernando, on Friday evenings.”

Among those in his inner political circle, he recalled, were future politicians, Alloy Lequay, Clifford Ramcharan, Nazim Muradali, Percy Persad, John Alleyne, Imtiaz Hassanali, Sara Akal,Nizam Mohammed and later, Karl Hudson-Phillips and ANR Robinson.

Those relationships led to many episodes in his political life – in the Senate, first with the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), then the NAR, where he also served as deputy chairman, and in the Borough Action Team (BAT).

“Later, he would be a pivot to us in the Congress of the People (COP). His magical power of persuasion saw him in the front seat in the historic points in TT politics on three critical occasions.

“He was never afraid to be counted, never hiding in a corner, never hedging his bets, generous with his efforts and walking the walk, from which many stories grew out of the inner strength of his character and his political values that brought home and calm, even in dangerous times.”

He recalled Mootoo and Perot risking their lives as an act of friendship to bring food and clothing for him and others who had escaped being held hostage when the Red House was stormed by insurrectionists in 1990.

“During the emergency of the 1990 times, Romesh and Ivan would call me as police stopped them at gunpoint, in the middle of the night, as they were driving on the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway after curfew hours.

“I had to explain that their mission was a humanitarian one.”

He said Mootoo's "magical powers" really shone during his seminal contribution as mayor of San Fernando, where he systematically transformed the landscape befitting of the industrial capital, while keeping the southern town of the national economy alive.

“It was a renaissance period for San Fernando, and Romesh Mootoo was at the helm.”