Political elites pay tribute to Murray

Top opposition and government officials, laying aside differences, paid tribute to the late parliamentarian Winston Murray, the powerful shadow finance minister from Guyana’s main opposition party, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).

At an emotionally charged church service held at the historic St George’s Cathedral, PNCR leader Robert Corbin said Murray was one of the party’s exemplary and outstanding members, who remained steadfast, a loyal and committed member to the day of his death.

 “We in the PNCR are grateful that Winston was blessed to walk this earthly plane for almost seven decades,” Corbin expressed. “Over the many years of his association with the PNCR, we are satisfied that he rendered distinguished service to the Guyanese people.”

According to Corbin, Murray’s life is testimony to what can be achieved by hard work, dedication, and determination. He described his fellow comrade as gracious, well spoken and honest in his personal and social relationships. Reminiscing on the evening of his collapse.

Corbin said he dismissed the first call about the tragedy as a prank, since Murray was in “fighting form” when they had last spoken. However, Corbin said, a second call and a trip to the Balwant Singh Hospital proved the report true, as he was “confronted by the sad sight of [his] comrade in an almost helpless state.”

In concluding, Corbin quoted a poem of the great Martin Carter, “Death of  Comrade”: “Dear Comrade, if it must be you speak no more with me, nor smile no more with me; then let me take a patience and a calm; for even now the greener leaf explodes, sun brightens stone, and all the river burns. Now from the mourning vanguard moving on, Dear Comrade, I salute you and I say death will not find us thinking that we die.”

Speaking on behalf of the government, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds reminisced on Murray’s staunch contribution to government’s developmental efforts through his constructive criticisms in the National Assembly. While expressing condolences to Murray’s family, Hinds described his death as a great loss to Guyana.

 Murray had been a member of parliament since 1985, serving in different capacities as a member of the ruling party up to 1992, when the People’s National Congress demitted office and the People’s Progressive Party took office; thereafter, he served as a leading member of the opposition. 

“Winston Murray brought to the National Assembly vast knowledge and wide experience,” said Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran. Ramkarran believes that Murray’s distinguished career of service is a monument of achievement worthy of emulation.

“We of the National Assembly have been elevated and ennobled by his work,” Ramkarran declared. “The National Assembly has lost one of its most respected members, who made a lasting contribution to its work and development. The nation has lost a political figure who stood out as a voice of reason and compassion.”

 Murray died during an active campaign for the presidential candidacy of the PNCR. He was staunchly supported by many influential party stalwarts and rank and file members as they sought to reposition the party as a major player in the country. Paying tribute on this group’s behalf was PNCR parliamentarian Mervyn Williams, who said that Murray wanted to build a “new political culture in which there would be no place for personal attacks, lawless behavior, and the perception of irregularity or disrespect for the party’s constitution and its tradition.”

“I believe that the best tribute I can pay to Winston Murray is to continue to work as selflessly and purposefully as he did to realise the fulfillment of his ideals and vision for Guyana.” Williams declared.

Murray’s passing leaves us poorer

Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, delivering a tribute on behalf of the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP), said his party joins with others in paying tribute to “this outstanding Guyanese; to mourn our common loss of a man of such excellence, and to say that his passing leaves all of us the poorer in our human capital, and the most deprived of a notable friend, at once the most gentle and the most worthy.”

 “We of the PPP feel in our collective hearts the pain that must be breaking yours at this time,” he said, speaking directly to Murray’s family. “For Winston was a good man, an outstanding Guyanese and a person of substance, irreplaceable in our affection and esteem.” 

Rohee declared that Murray was a man who was small in stature but was gigantic in heart; small in muscle but expansive in mind and spirit; and so strong. “Those of us in the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, including those themselves recently and long gone and those contemporary who sat on opposite sides on the benches in Parliament would note almost immediately an opponent, alert and able, eloquent and elegant, learned and logical, passionate and persuasive.”

Rohee said Murray was a great light that shone in this country’s Parliament. That light illuminated this country for many years in such a way that his passing will not put it out for years to come.

Meanwhile, Raphael Trotman of the Alliance For Change said: “Winston Murray was, by the manner of his very life itself, that example that Guyana needed and still desperately needs, so as to learn from as to how to develop a united, peaceful and prosperous nation. He was the embodiment of the love, tolerance, respect, integrity, and patriotism that we need as the Guyana standard.”

Accordingly, Trotman has placed the 69-year-old public servant on a pedestal with the likes of the late LFS Burnham, Dr Cheddi Jagan, Sir David Rose, Desmond Hoyte and Arthur Chung.     The AFC leader, however, warned against allowing Murray’s memory being buried with him. “If we truly cared for, loved, admired, respected, and revered the man as much as we proclaim we do, we would not allow his memory to fade and his work to be buried over time,” he stressed. “We can inadvertently or deliberately do so by simply giving tributes and accolades, and then entombing him, and them, for all eternity thereafter.”

Tributes were also given by GAP/ROAR parliamentarian Everall Franklin, who, like the others, spoke of the tremendous loss Murray’s death has imposed on the nation. Though he was initially against a celebration for the dead, Franklin thinks that Murray’s life and works demand a celebration.