Veteran broadcaster Rafiq Khan passes away

Guyanese broadcaster Rafiq Khan passed away in Kingston, Jamaica today. He was 82.

Khan was highly regarded in the field of broadcasting and played a significant role in what was considered a golden period of radio in Guyana. He was a former Programme Director of Radio Demerara (1956) which was later merged into the state broadcaster.

Later, he became Management Consultant to the Rediffusion Group of Broadcasting Systems in the Caribbean. After resigning from the Company in 1978, he served regional communication organizations in various positions. In 1979, he began a period of 13 years with UNESCO, 10 of them as Regional Communication Adviser for the Caribbean. It was subsequent to this that he had his most recent formal connection with Guyana. In 1992, when the PPP/C government took office, Khan was invited to prepare a report on media issues. Though well received, many of the recommendations in the report were ignored.

In recent years, Khan delivered tributes on  the passing of several well-known local broadcasters including Olga Lopes-Seales, Ayube Hamid and Hugh Cholmondeley. Earlier this year, he delivered the obituary on the passing at another of radio’s well known figures, Terry Holder.

The following is a section of the SN report carried on his obituary for Holder in January this year.

“Terry was passionate about this loss of standards and despaired that it may be beyond reclaim. He feared that the mediocrity of yesterday had become the excellence of today. This insight brought to mind these words of a poet, slightly misquoted:

“Degradation is a monster of so frightful mien

As to be hated needs to be seen.

Yet, seen too often, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace”.

“The question therefore becomes: How can a generation that has embraced degraded values be made to recognize perennial excellence?” Khan asked

“Fossils like me are long forgotten. But Hugh Cholmondeley strove, failed and is gone. Terry Holder agonized, failed and is now gone. And what of my other proteges – Vic Insanally, Ron Robinson, Rovin Deodat, Carlton James, who are still among you? Perhaps it is more expedient to send them too into pre-mature fossilage?

“Terry Holder, among the last holdouts from an era when standards really mattered, lamented what has become of his beloved country as a whole…while I, an ancient mariner with a narrower perspective, have been searching in vain, amidst the tawdriness of a garbage and concrete jungle, for the Garden City of my youth.

“Is anyone even noticing that the philistines are taking over our city and our country? Even in the little elegant avenue where Terry and I last lived, I see the philistines rising.

“And I am left to wonder how paltry is any tribute of soon-forgotten words to such as Terence Holder? How long will we ignore our prophets? When will we gather the collective will to stand behind them and say: Enough?” Khan asked.

 

 

Rafiq Khan
Rafiq Khan