Deoroop Teemal. - WHEN A national icon dies, everyone has something to say. Leaders, politicians and civil society figures pay tribute. Debated, discussed and analysed is the deceaseds legacy.
Finely pored over are the details of their biography and, sometimes, their last days. But the dead cannot speak. Lost in the mix is the centrality of the departed and their voice.
All of this is true in relation to Deoroop Teemal, 68, the independent senator and well-known head of the National Council of Indian Culture, who died at his St Augustine home on August 3.
Thus, we pay tribute to him today through the lens of the final words he uttered in his capacity as a senator.
Mr Teemals parliamentary career is hardly the entirety of his national contribution. Vast was his reach. He was a civil and structural engineer with 37 years experience, with sought-after expertise in project management, contract administration, construction and water infrastructure.
Several people, including the Prime Minister, President Christine Kangaloo and Minister of Culture and Community Development Michelle Benjamin, have described him as a champion of culture.
Deep was his passion for the community. A case in point was his stint as an independent from 2018-2025. His Senate contribution on June 30 to the debate of the Prime Ministers Pension (Amendment) Act was revealing.
I stand in this chamber not as a representative of a political party nor a voice swayed by populist sentiment or public emotion, he said of his ethos on that day. I stand here under the solemn oath I have taken to uphold the Constitution.
This is the spirit in which I serve as an independent senator, neither blindly deferential nor politically reactionary, but always trying my best to be principled, thoughtful, and faithful to the law and to the people we serve.
It is a shame the occasion of Mr Teemals death, which should unite all in contemplation of our shared transience, has been used to reopen a feud between independents and overheated politicos.
Whatever the deceased senator was grappling with in his final days and he acknowledged attacks on my integrity and my character prior to the Parliaments contemplation of Stuart Youngs pension he was adamant that I would not let that affect the clarity of my thinking.
So, too, must we not be distracted by cheap shots, which make for good politics but undermine freedom of expression by melodramatically equating criticism with killing.
Said Mr Teemal, If we are to build trust in public institutions, we must be willing to review and correct practices that no longer serve the public interest.
In a long career, he understood that responsibility. To heed his wise words would be a politicians best tribute.
