TRIBUTE TO LATE LEETOORAJ CHUNDRAMUN

It’s ten years since Late Comrade Leetooraj Chundramun, President of the Communist Party of Mauritius left us. He passed away on the 27th.February,2008 at the age of 82 and he was incinerated the following day according to Hindu traditions. 

He was born on the 15th.November1925 in a poor family of the working class. He studied only up to the primary education which was free and due to extreme poverty his parents could not afford to pay for his secondary education. He had to start working at a very tender age, doing small jobs all around, he even worked as a car cleaner.

At the age of 17 he joined the British Colonial Army during the Second World War and served both in war time and peace time from 1943 to 1949.Back from the army in 1949 he started working as a taxi driver.

In 1959 he gave up his job as a taxi driver to devote himself entirely for the promotion  of Communism in the Colony of Mauritius. He was one of the founder members of the Communist Party of Mauritius on 1st.May 1959 and the Mauritius Young Communist League on 1st.May 1960. He was actively involved the propagation of the teachings of Karl Marx, Frederic Engels and Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - Lenin to the working class.

On the 2nd.June 1965 he was sentenced to six months hard labour for contempt of court at a public meeting. In 1967 he was elected President of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Mauritius.

In March 1969 while he was on an official visit in Romania, he had to undergo an emergency  surgical intervention due to a perforated duodenal ulcer. During his absence he was elected Municipal Councillor of the capital, Port Louis.

During his political career Late Comrade Leetooraj Chundramun also known as Jwala and Pere visited most of the Socialist countries and had the honour to meet  world leaders namely Comrades Nikita Khruschev, Fidel Castro, Kim Il Sung, Josip Broz Tito and Nicolae Ceausescu.

Late Comrade Leetooraj Chundramun is no longer in our midst but his presence is still felt. He helped a lot of Mauritians to get scholarships for professional training in several socialist countries and these compatriots came back to serve the country. Personally I am one of them and I am greatly indebted to him.

May his soul rest in peace.

Dr. Lohmus Ramsurn