Barima, Barima, Barima – What to say this Sunday

Jul 26, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Barima! Barima! Barima! For those who hear that word repeated, there should be recognition of echoes of Pearl Harbor. A time and tragedy now enshrined in history. From Hawaii, America to Kumaka, Guyana. Another tranquil Sunday morning shattered. The time difference between occurrence and others catching on was an agony in itself. But like Tora, Tora, Tora around Oahu and Americans, so now the MV Barima of Port Kaituma-Morawhanna-Kumaka history forms part of Guyanese horrors. Families wrenched by engulfing grief. A nation in mourning -the honest, human part.

Yards of media columns. Barrels of ink. Computer toners by the cartload. Editorials. Letters. Columns. Calls for the president of Guyana to roll on home. He did. Calls for heads to roll. They are square. Resistant to all but the fiercest nudges, sharpest kicks. But already digging in to stay the course. After all the expressions of interest, of anger, of disgust and, most of all, pain, I am thinking where else and what more…. How many more tragedies waiting? The count of miscarriages in governance and travesties of leadership presently hidden. Leadership abortions have brought to this grim state. Those go by the more official and serious label of ‘abdication of duty.’ I am more comfortable with abandonment of post. Retreat from responsibility. Shrinking from honesty, and what that demands.

When a ruling party is comprised almost exclusively of people of low or no moral character, then the dirges shouldn’t be about the one MV Barima that splashed across Guyana’s face the wrong way on Sunday. They must be about why the shock, since it took so long. Since there are likely so many more of these manmade disasters lying below the surface, biding their time. Before they explode into the nation’s consciousness. What else could have been expected, however farfetched?

When a sitting government is founded and surrounded with numerous men and women, who have neither time nor interest nor patience with principles. Nor a duty of care for the people. Then the MV Barima was simply a matter of time. Hindsight is perfect vision. But one needs no eyesight at all to detect the waiting horrors of the MV Barima that were no mysteries whatsoever. The tender board rehabilitation submissions and numbers reveal all. The weaknesses of the MV Barima. The embedded dangers in that passenger boat that doubled as a big cargo boat. Someone in the PPP Govt had to stand and say: not I near this boat. Not for oceanic voyages. Maybe not even coastal trips. It was not a candidate for the dockyard. It was a corpse, a floating dead, that belonged in the graveyard. Let it be gone. It is how bold, unflinching men prove themselves. People before party. Peons before even the president. Of course, it takes men with character and the courage of their convictions to stand for those. Plus, their care for their fellow citizens. In a country where cash is king, that will always be a loser’s game. Who wants to part company with cash, and for those puny considerations: character, courage, convictions (and citizens)?

Now, the program is about remediation. Remediation or swiftly restoring some gloss to the PPP Govt and its leadership? When political perversions and propaganda take precedence over the welfare of the people, then there is the tragedy of the MV Barima.

By all means, it was avoidable. Damnit! 87 years and that junk, that deathtrap, still commissioned to action? And managed to stay afloat. Thus, calls rage for some to stepdown. Better to call for those who put them in those positions to kneel down, then fall facedown, before the Guyanese people and admit their failures. No spinning. No diminishing. But with mea culpas. Many have been the calls for prayers. This country needs more than prayers and hymns. Guyana needs endless exorcisms. Begin with the PPP Govt, a devilish entity, if ever there was one.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Barima, GHK Lall, Morawhanna, Pearl Harbor, Port Kaituma

Latest News