Mia Mottley pays tribute to veteran journalist Rickey Singh

BRIDGETOWN (CMC):

Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley says Rickey Singh has left a legacy that any young journalist with a genuine interest in building a reputation based on integrity would do well to emulate.

In her message of condolences, Mottley, the Barbados prime minister, who gives up the chairmanship of the 15-member regional integration movement to Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness, at the start of the CARICOM summit in Montego Bay on Sunday, said Singh’s death brings “the end of an era in Caribbean journalism that produced a cadre of veterans who epitomised a spirit of regional cooperation and togetherness even when political leaders still struggled with the concept.

“Rickey Singh, like many of the media practitioners of his time, had his roots in one nation but his heart and spirit flowed throughout the region like the Caribbean Sea. Whether it was in his native Guyana, Trinidad, or Barbados, which he called home for more than four decades, Rickey’s was a household name.”

She said in fact few commanded the respect he did when it came to regional politics and current affairs.

“His byline was synonymous with every major political occurrence in this region for more than half a centurym from the uprising in Union Island and the overthrow of Eric Gairy in Grenada in 1979, to the attempted coups in Dominica and the assassination of Walter Rodney in Guyana in the early 1980s, the execution of Maurice Bishop and the eventual United States intervention in 1983 and the failed coup attempted in Trinidad in 1990.

“He was the go-to journalist for commentary on elections in any Caribbean country and remained until the end a staunch advocate for a more enthusiastic CARICOM stance on advancing the plight of Haitians.”

The Guyana-born Singh, who received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guyana government in 2023, died here on Saturday at the age of 88 years. He had been ailing for a long time.

The founding president of the now defunct Caribbean Association of Media Workers (CAMWORK), Singh published his first story in 1957 at the Guiana Graphic and swiftly moved from covering general stories and beats to political reporting covering various issues in Guyana and across the Caribbean.

The Association of Caribbean Media Workers, the successor organisation to CAMWORK, in extending condolences, said “Singh was a political journalist who, in the words of veteran Trinidadian journalist Tony Fraser was “was born in Guyana but belonged to the Caribbean”.

In a brief statement, the Guyana Press Association extended condolences to the family, friends and regional media colleagues of Singh.

Singh is survived by his children Donna, Debbie, Raoul, Allison, Wendy and Ramon, grandchildren and other relatives.

The funeral service for Singh will be announced later.