Gail Alexan­der

A de­vout ser­vant of the peo­ple and T&T.

That was how past and present politi­cians de­scribed for­mer Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion Na­pari­ma MP and Min­is­ter Dr Emanuel Ho­sein, who died yes­ter­day.

Na­tion­al Award win­ner Ho­sein had been ail­ing for some time.

NAR mem­ber Wen­dell Ever­s­ley, who, like Ho­sein, was a hostage dur­ing the 1990 coup at­tempt, said Ho­sein was op­er­at­ing his med­ical prac­tice in Tu­na­puna up to last year.

Ho­sein, who lived at Ch­agua­nas, is said to be sur­vived by his wife Claudette, four chil­dren and sev­en grand­chil­dren.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, his fam­i­ly said he was di­ag­nosed with a Glioblas­toma last May and un­der­went surgery and chemother­a­py. They added that he died sur­round­ed by his fam­i­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing.

“Our fam­i­ly would like to ex­press sin­cere thanks to all the friends and fam­i­ly that pro­vid­ed sup­port dur­ing his ill­ness and now dur­ing this try­ing time,” the state­ment said.

Ho­sein served in the Sec­ond and Third Re­pub­li­can Par­lia­ments. He first served from No­vem­ber 27, 1981 to Oc­to­ber 29, 1986 as an Op­po­si­tion ULP MP for Na­pari­ma.

When the NAR was formed with the ULF and oth­er par­ties, Ho­sein went on to serve in Par­lia­ment as NAR’s Na­pari­ma MP. He served from Jan­u­ary 1987 to No­vem­ber 1991, first as Min­is­ter of Health, Wel­fare and Sta­tus of Women, and then as Health Min­is­ter.

Ho­sein was ho­n­oured by his al­ma mater, St Mary’s Col­lege, in the Sphere of Em­pow­er­ment of Dis­abled Per­sons and was chair­man of the UN Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al’s Coun­cil on Dis­abil­i­ty. He served as a com­mis­sion­er on the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion and al­so chaired the T&T Chap­ter of Dis­abled Peo­ples In­ter­na­tion­al.

Ho­sein was award­ed the Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold) for long and mer­i­to­ri­ous ser­vice for his ded­i­ca­tion to fight­ing for the rights of T&T’s dis­abled.

As a mem­ber of a NAR gov­ern­ment, Ho­sein was among the hostages held in the Red House dur­ing the Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen’s 1990 coup at­tempt.

In 2011, Ho­sein gave ev­i­dence be­fore the Sim­mons Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the in­ci­dent.

UNC deputy leader Roodal Mooni­lal, ex­tend­ing con­do­lences to Ho­sein’s fam­i­ly and friends, said,

“Trinidad and To­ba­go has lost a de­vout ser­vant of the peo­ple in Dr Emanuel Ho­sein.

“With his po­lit­i­cal roots in the ULF, he was im­bued with the ULF’s val­ues and has been a cham­pi­on of the work­ing peo­ple, poor, op­pressed and par­tic­u­lar­ly the dif­fer­ent­ly-abled. It was my ho­n­our to know him over the years. T&T is bet­ter off for his life and ser­vice.”

Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, via a re­lease ex­tend­ing con­do­lences, said, “Dr Ho­sein will be re­mem­bered for his years of ser­vice and ded­i­ca­tion to coun­try and for cham­pi­oning the cause for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, which earned him the Cha­co­nia medal Gold in 2022.

Ho­sein told Mus­limeen to re­move Robin­son’s gag

NAR’s Ever­s­ley re­called that Ho­sein was un­tied to at­tend to the wound­ed held hostage in the Red House dur­ing the at­tempt­ed coup.

“One was MP Leo De Vi­gnes, who was shot. I re­mem­ber Ho­sein telling Mus­limeen mem­ber Bi­laal (Ab­dul­lah) that if he didn’t re­lease De Vi­gnes, he would die in Par­lia­ment.”

De Vi­gnes was re­leased but lat­er died. Ever­s­ley said Ho­sein at­tend­ed to then-prime min­is­ter ANR Robin­son, whom the Mus­limeen at­tacked and shot in the knee.

“When they gagged Mr Robin­son by putting a cloth in his mouth, suf­fo­cat­ing him, Dr Ho­sein told them to re­move it and they did, oth­er­wise the Prime Min­is­ter would have sti­fled to death. Dr Ho­sein al­so told them when Mr Robin­son need­ed his eye med­i­cine for the glau­co­ma he had,” Ever­s­ley said.

He said he vis­it­ed Ho­sein last year, pri­or to Ju­ly 27 2023.

“What hurt him a lot is that past and present gov­ern­ments knew about the CoE’s rec­om­men­da­tions on com­pen­sa­tion for coup vic­tims and fam­i­lies, and he was con­cerned that this be im­ple­ment­ed. Dr Ho­sein suf­fered great trau­ma from the in­ci­dent,” Ever­s­ley said.

For­mer NAR Min­is­ter Joseph Toney said, “I’ve lost a good friend and col­league. What stood out was when we were held hostage for the six days, Dr Ho­sein at­tend­ed to both gov­ern­ment and Mus­limeen mem­bers who were in­jured and didn’t let the hos­til­i­ties af­fect him dis­charg­ing his med­ical re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.”

UNC Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles said, “Dr Ho­sein was a true pa­tri­ot who over­came the af­flic­tions of po­lio to self­less­ly serve his coun­try as med­ical prac­ti­tion­er and gov­ern­ment min­is­ter. He paid the price as did most Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans of that era who suf­fered sig­nif­i­cant psy­cho­log­i­cal af­flic­tions, hu­mil­i­a­tions and per­son­al in­dig­ni­ties as a re­sult of the coup at­tempt.”

He added, “T&T has nev­er ful­ly come to terms with that event, its caus­es, lessons and even com­pen­sa­tion for those who bore the brunt psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly, fi­nan­cial­ly, phys­i­cal­ly and oth­er­wise of that un­for­tu­nate event. I got the sense Dr Ho­sein, while he fer­vent­ly wished to con­tribute to our de­vel­op­ment, nev­er ful­ly re­cov­ered from 1990. Per­haps the time has come for us as a coun­try to ful­ly come to terms with those events so they will nev­er hap­pen again. That’ll be a most fit­ting memo­r­i­al to his self­less con­tri­bu­tion and bring clo­sure to all who suf­fered.”