Fazal Ally – A Fighter for Farmers, Advocate of the Poor
The words of the People’s Progressive Party’s Battle song “Oh Fighting Men” sum up and project what was most likely Fazal Ally’s credo – his life’s objectives.

“We’re building our Guyana free

Not halfway slave and halfway free

We hunger for that larger life

Give us the sign and forward go

Each one must be a hero

The People’s fortress PPP

Will keep the red flag flying!

O Comrades here and Comrades there

O Comrades, Comrades everywhere

Our cause is just and win we must

We’ll grind oppression in the dust

O workers stand fast in line

O Comrades give the fighting sign

The People’s only flag is red

We’ll keep the red flag flying!”

His life-long dedication to the cause of his Party: His devotion to the welfare of farmers – both in sugar and in rice: His tenacity against the pre-1992 anti–democratic forces, all endeared him to his supporters and beneficiaries. His detractors naturally found him offensive, brash, and perhaps arrogant.

Others will judge the various assessments of the man, his life’s work and his manner.

This supplement is intended to pay tribute to the efforts and contribution of one who served the Agricultural Sector with vigour and consequent achievement.

Through the words of his closer comrades and colleagues, recognition of his political work in terms of national development is also afforded.

It is obvious and manifest that “Party Man” as he was, Fazal Ally’s politics quite often overshadowed aggressive down-to-earth but professional struggles he waged, especially on behalf of the nation’s rice farmers.

Privately, and once during a television interview, Fazal described his imprisonment and torture by the servants of an earlier dictatorial regime.

He was beaten but not broken. His spirit soared above the pain and the prison. The pledge to serve the producers of food, the needy and the poor was made more resolute then.

His enthusiasm for that role, that duty, his rustic demeanor and far-from-angelic methods lost him a few “friends”.

But a majority of Guyana’s salt of the earth, working class toilers will forever testify to his total commitment to their well-being.

That would be enough to depict the balance in a life well and fully lived.

The tributes recorded herein, the willing advertisers and supporters who suggested an even larger supplement stand as eloquent endorsement of the contributions of yet another Guyanese stalwart whose work was cut short suddenly.

The best tribute which can be paid to Fazal Ally’s life therefore, is that his work be perpetuated by his colleagues and comrades.