First of all, May the
soul of Dr. Willy rest in peace.
“Never to talk ill of a
dead person”, says one Roman saying. However,
if there is something bad of Dr. Willy and if I say so here, will I commit a
sin? After all one has to be truthful. But there is lot of good also to say about
him which I will say.
Dr. Wilfred and I
started our honeymoon somewhere in 1970 when I was in College and side by side
I was playing football for the then mighty Sesa Goa. He was then appointed by Sesa Goa to treat
its footballers of any injury. While
he was treating me for my leg injury, he took interest in me especially when he
came to know that I am from his constituency and I being a popular figure in our locality he wanted to make
use of my popularity for his electoral gains. But the moment he failed to cure
me and hence I approached other doctor, he became furious as if I was duty
bound by contractual obligation to get a treatment from him only. At that time he was
at Remanso Mapusa.
Earlier he was attached
to Azilo Hospital Mapusa where he earned a good name as a surgeon but blackened his
image by treating patients of any sickness.
At Remanso he was taking cases even of Cancer patients when he was not
specialized in Cancer just like Dr. Egypsy at Margao leading to the deaths of
the patients. In this way he made a
mockery of his profession. Though he was a good doctor yet his hot temperament
used to earn him a bad name. His other
weakness was his leaning towards casteism though he himself was a victim of apartheid
in the foreign land. He used to criticize
smallness of small people on their faces, especially of poor patients who
having no choice had to shut their mouths.
When he was inducted
into politics by Dr. Jack Sequeira thru Dr. George Renato Fernandes – the son-in-law
of Dr. Sequeira, he encountered lot of boulders from common folks because of
his earlier pride and arrogance. His
political rise was not easy because of his past feudality and pride but somehow
or the other he gained a foothold among
the masses who had no other better leader to rely. In the beginning he proved
to be a an upright politician but gradually he started losing his earlier
shine.
His philosophy was to
boss over everyone and whatever he says must be right. With this view in mind, without consulting
the voters he converted Congress U into Congre I. Politically he was a fickle minded politician
having no firm principle for this reason he changed so many parties only for
the greed of power to maintain his feudality and aristocracy. His greatest mistake as a politician was to
form Goa Congress and lose the grip of political power in Goa. He was under the impression that he is meant
to rule over others, selfishness was his priority though he was less corrupt
than many of his colleagues. As a human being coming from good family
background he had good character, discipline and morality while the same
characteristics are lacking in most of the current politicians who are coming
from rotten family background.
His love for Goa, its
language, culture and folklore was immense.
He was instrumental in revival of Mando culture in Goa in mid-sixties. He was very much responsible for preventing
more deaths during the Konkani agitation in Goa. As per the enemies of Konkani, they had
planned to commit genocide on Konkani supporter but Dr. Willy used his political clout
with the then Goa governor to control the situation from getting aggravated.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel:7507394349.
