Memorable ‘Stretch’

We join with the many extending condolences to Dumas’ family and all those who were close to him, and despite that questions and shortcomings would have arisen during his political life, we salute his service as a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet minister and a man of the people, especially Tobago which gave him the mandate during his career to speak for them and to take decisions on their behalf.

Small-island politics yields a thankless existence, especially when there isn’t enough to go around to satisfy the demands of constituents. Yet the wide-ranging tributes paid Dumas from just as wide a cross section of people following his passing on Sunday speak volumes about his effort at effective representation both at the insular Tobago and wider national community levels.

A loyal PNM activist for more than 20 years, Dumas was elected Member of Parliament for Tobago East in 2007. But this was just part of his sojourn in local politics. He served as an Opposition senator in 2001, which was a prelude to a nine-year ministerial career under the late PNM political leader and prime minister Patrick Manning.

He was minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister during 2001 to 2002; minister of public utilities during 2002 to 2003; minister of local government from 2003 to 2007; and minister of labour from 2007 to 2010.

A more recent aspiration of his was to lead the PNM in Tobago and to take charge of the House of Assembly in Orville London’s wake, but he failed to garner enough support at the party’s council elections, still leaving him though in the hierarchy as party education officer.

PNM political leader and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said, “Mr Dumas’ innate service to the people of Trinidad and Tobago signified his innate sense of patriotism which was his driving force throughout his public service career.” Hazel Manning, wife of the late Patrick Manning, was moved to issue a statement. “He was a very good colleague,” said Mrs Manning, who also once held the local government portfolio. “When I followed him in the Ministry of Local Government, he gave quite a lot of advice. I followed in some of his programmes. We worked closely.” No doubt those programmes included setting the stage for the reforms to give more power to the regional corporations and municipalities, his role acknowledged by the incumbent Minister of Rural Development and Local Government, Kazim Hosein, as having in large measure paved the way for the contemplated reforms.

The Ministry of Public Administration described Dumas as relentless in his pursuit of an enhanced quality of life for his fellow Tobagonians and always contributed to the discussion on the issue of greater autonomy for the sister isle.

But he was not by any means an isolationist, Public Administration Minister Maxie Cuffie, pointing out that Dumas also championed the full integration of Trinidad and Tobago.

The portrait of the gentle giant that Dumas was would be tarnished though by an incident in June 2011 which took him before the courts where, two years later, he would be found guilty of two counts of common assault further to the fracas in which he was alleged to have struck one Roger Simon with a gun across his face. Dumas won an appeal in the matter with the court quashing his convictions and ordering a new trial. A statement from his family on Sunday said, “Rennie, aka Stretch, was loved and respected by many and our sincere hope is that his memory continues to live in all of us.” From us, ditto to a memorable stretch.