Longest serving PNM general secretary lauded at funeral

This is according to PNM founding member, Ferdie Ferreira, who eulogised his friend and colleague yesterday at his funeral held at the Church of the Nativity, Diego Martin. Ferreira said that Simonette’s contribution to the PNM, and by extension the development of the country, has been “conspicuous” due to the absence of any accurate records by those who were responsible for the transition from colonialism to independence and onto republicanism in the 1970s.

Among those present at the funeral service were Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Minister of Planning and Development Camille Robinson-Regis. Officiating priest was Father Harold Imamshah.

“Today our party members shout from the roof tops, “great is the PNM and it shall prevail,” without a clue as to who was responsible for maintaining and strengthening the 60-year-old fortunes of the enduring balisier estate,” Ferreira said.

Credited as the PNM’s longest serving general secretary, Ferreira said that Simonette took over the position in 1962 after the party had used the services of six members as general secretaries during a period of chaos and confusion which included the misappropriation of party funds.

It was at that stage, he said, that former prime minister, Dr Eric Williams, persuaded Simonette, then a senior teacher in Cedros who was known for his organisational skills and unlimited capacity for work, to move north to take up the position.

Ferreira credited Simonette for reorganising and restructuring the party, as well as the promotion of “Buy Local” through Buy Local Jamborees in the 1970s which produced three calypso monarchs.

In tributes Simonette’s daughters Helene Anne Lewis and Laura Nicole Simonette described their father as shaping their lives according to their dreams and aspirations. They both noted his love for the arts including poetry which he taught them, and in Lewis words, teaching them also “politics, prayer and propriety”.

Lewis said that on her father’s 90th birthday, celebrated in December last, he described himself as the “oldest Simonette who ever lived.” As one who encouraged his children to build relationships based on character and not race, she said, “Long before Dr Williams admonished against the use of the words ‘nigger’ and ‘coolie’, Daddy had forbidden us to use those words so often heard and spoken at school.” As a cultural promoter, Lewis said that her father promoted as fund raising efforts for the PNM, concert tours to Trinidad by the Jamaica National Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Senegalese Dance Company - Les Ballet Africaines, Millie Jackson and a US variety concert called “Around the World in 60 Minutes”.