Dear Editor,
I wish to express my condolences to the family of Mr David de Caires, Editor-in-Chief of Stabroek News, upon the passing of the media personality.  Of course, by family I also include this newspaper.

I recall the first days of the paper in the eighties. It was a necessary separation from the only papers we knew, the Chronicle, and to a lesser extent, the WPA paper (Dayclean) which, despite a handful of pages with its simple layout, was the only sensible and relevant paper in the countryside.

Down on the East Bank the WPA paper was distributed by Mr Bissoon Rajkumar, who lived opposite us in Third Street, Grove.  It was people like Mr Rajkumar who, despite being extremely poor and sometimes quietly laughed at by the local ignoramuses found in every PPP enclave, walked the streets come rain or shine in order to give us (in the country) something proper to read.

The Chronicle was a PNC joke then as it is a PPP joke now, and the Catholic Standard newsletter was just not something one would find in the countryside.

It was very thrilling, therefore, to see a Stabroek News in one’s home in those days, because it took the efforts of folks like Mr Rajkumar (and other WPA paper boys and girls) to a higher level. No one has ever recognized this part of Stabroek News journalism, and it should be.
That said, it is rightfully recognized that Stabroek News journalism unquestionably helped to have the PNC removed from office (not exactly a ‘restoration of democracy’), and Mr de Caires must be remembered for his strong role in this.
I do hope, however, that the chroniclers would be objective enough to note that over the past few years, the paper has been anything but what it was in the eighties.

Indeed, a proper tribute to the late Editor-in-Chief would be to ask that the paper return to its journalism of the late eighties.
Yours faithfully,
Rakesh Rampertab