YESTERDAY the president announced the names of the chairman and commissioners for an official presidential commission of inquiry into the MV Barima tragedy. This, I’m sure, is welcome news both far and near. From all accounts, the named commissioners are competent and of good repute; the nation looks forward for a highly proficient and smooth process, followed by a report that substantially answers the questions that are on the minds of Guyanese. Not only answers to our questions, but also a menu of recommendations that will substantially and permanently change Guyanese river transportation and maritime landscape.
The entire team, by qualifications, are experts in some aspects of maritime affairs. My initial reaction to the composition of the commission, without canvassing the views of anyone else, is that the president should consider a sixth member. Someone locally based and, as far as possible, a non-expert. I am afraid that some subtle nuances of local life and experiences of Guyanese may go ununderstood and unnoticed.
While the experts concentrate on the technical details, they may miss certain shades and slants that may be immaterial in their own national experience, but are of major importance to the Guyanese public. Further, laypeople and experts look at incidents from completely different perspectives.
I dare say that this was an ordinary-people tragedy. They do have passenger expertise of a totally different kind which may never be fully appreciated by international experts, some of whom may have never set foot in Guyana. The named experts are welcome; however, a local person with enough informal experience in the unique Guyanese maritime terrain should be asked to sit on the commission. I wish to use this space to humbly entreat President Ali to consider adding a local person to the commission.
The Terms of Reference announced by the President are, in my opinion, very comprehensive and is designed to get to the heart of all aspects of matters associated with the tragedy. Given those TORs, this CoI cannot be short; Guyanese will have to be extremely patient and forbearing. Let the process work, keep engaged, co-operate and participate as fully as the law allows.
Activists from the opposition had a lot to say, they have been demonising the government at every turn. They claimed that they have evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Minister of Public Works. I hope that when the appropriate time comes, they will actually go to the CoI and present actual evidence. My guess is that not one of them will show up there, because since tragedy struck, they have essentially only engaged in political talking points and the contortion of facts to suit a particular political narrative.
That is not the sort of thing that could stand the scrutiny of a CoI, and they know that only too well. So, instead of engaging the CoI formally and presenting their dossier of facts, they will stay away and jump on social media with ranting pontification. They will cherry pick the evidence presented to the CoI and frame it in ways to excite the population in the hope of scoring political points. This, of course, is a prediction knowing as I do, the nature of the beast.
With respect to the loud call for Minister Edghill to go, I find most aspects of it comical. The comedy lies is the personage of those that are loudest in their demand for the minister to resign. Perennial sourpusses, they trade in all that’s negative and hawk misinformation as their stock in trade, many of them do not come to the table with clean hands.
On the Freddie Kissoon Show, I had occasion to point out several areas of misinformation being peddled by known opposition parliamentarians. For example, a trio from APNU were on social media telling the public that the government refused foreign assistance for divers to come and assist with rescue and recovery operations.
They also told the nation that a person who recovered a body and took it to the authorities was arrested, because he was associated with the leader of the opposition. Of course, the police were merely doing their job. What kind of police work would it be if a person simply turns up with a corpse and be able to hand it in without question? Law enforcement must detain that person until they can ascertain the true origin of the body. Everyone knows that this is standard and basic police work, but not the opposition leader and APNU – his echo chamber of doom.
Even though rescue crews and Coast Guard personnel reported that the first rescues took place just after 2 a.m. and were delivered on shore just after 3 a.m. on the night of the tragedy, the opposition ran all over social media and painted the picture of rescue apparatus twiddling their thumbs and never commencing rescue efforts till 4 am. They interviewed two single persons who were rescued just after 5 am and behaved as if those were the first to be rescued. It was calculated to infuriate and excite the public with deliberate misinformation. In the midst of a national tragedy, this is the type and quality of opposition politicians attempting to present themselves as alternatives to this government.
I do not have all the information necessary to be able to offer informed commentary on whether the minister should be relieved of his duties, but if I were to rely purely on the emanations from the opposition, the minister may as well be booked to serve another term. My own preference would be to wait on the conclusions of the CoI and the President, who is empowered to act, I’m sure he will make a determination at that time.
Amazingly, one hour had scarcely elapsed after the president announced the nominees to the CoI before the opposition elements started to demonise every one of them. The opposition has an insatiable, avaricious appetite for feigned contrarian anti-government spittle. They set out to assail and discredit every one of the eminently qualified panelists in an effort to lay the ground to later claim that the whole commission is compromised.
Sounds familiar? Where have we seen that before? Ahhhhh! The Adriana Younge postmortem. It is sad that the opposition is converting Guyana into a drubbing pit for the careers and reputations of people with respected expertise everywhere else in the world; a place where professional reputations come to die.