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Business as usual while a nation mourns
(Kaieteur News) – There are moments in a nation’s history when politics must give way to humanity. There are moments when governments must understand that leadership is not demonstrated by passing budgets, introducing bills or boasting about development projects, but by showing humility, accountability and respect for the grief of a broken people.
Monday should have been one of those moments.
Instead, the PPP/C government marched into parliament with a $54.9 billion supplementary budget and a stack of legislation as though Guyana was experiencing just another ordinary week. It was anything but ordinary. The country is still reeling from the worst maritime disaster in its modern history. More than 100 people are believed to have perished when the MV Barima sank off the Essequibo coast near Iron Punt while carrying passengers to Port Kaituma. Entire families have been shattered. Children have been orphaned. Parents are burying their sons and daughters. Communities are struggling to comprehend the scale of the tragedy.
Yet, inside the National Assembly, it was business as usual.
That image alone speaks volumes.
The government has moved with astonishing speed against those at the bottom of the chain. The management team of the vessel has been sent home. The captain and crew have been arrested and now sit behind bars. If negligence or recklessness contributed to this catastrophe, they must answer before the law. No one should object to that.
But accountability cannot stop at the engine room.
Who is holding accountable those responsible for the policies, oversight and regulation of Guyana’s maritime sector? Where is the accountability for the head of MARAD? Where is the ministerial responsibility expected under the Westminster system that Guyana claims to follow?
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill and Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar remain comfortably in office. Despite mounting public outrage, despite calls from the parliamentary opposition, civil society organisations, indigenous leaders and grieving relatives, the government has refused to remove either minister while investigations continue.
That refusal sends an unmistakable message. There appears to be one standard for workers and another for politicians.
The symbolism became even more disturbing on Monday. Rather than recognising the nation’s grief by postponing the sitting or limiting it to matters directly related to the disaster, the government pressed ahead with its legislative agenda while the very ministers under public scrutiny occupied prominent seats in the House.
It was a display many Guyanese found impossible to reconcile with the pain still gripping the country.
The opposition responded the only way it believed it could. Members rose in protest, beat bottles on their desks, held photographs of victims and repeatedly chanted, “Edghill and Indar must go.” The Speaker was forced to suspend proceedings as the protest engulfed the chamber.
Some may criticise the opposition’s tactics. Parliament is not meant to descend into chaos. But governments must also recognise that when ordinary channels of accountability appear blocked, protest becomes louder. The chants inside Parliament merely echoed what has already been heard across riverine communities, indigenous villages and social media platforms throughout Guyana.
This is no longer simply about two ministers.
It is about whether political office carries responsibility when tragedy strikes.
Throughout the Commonwealth, ministers have resigned not because they personally caused disasters but because they accepted that ultimate responsibility rests with those entrusted to oversee their sectors. Such resignations do not constitute admissions of criminal guilt. They demonstrate respect for democratic accountability and preserve public confidence while investigations proceed.
That principle appears absent in today’s Guyana.
Instead, there seems to be a determination to shield political officeholders while sacrificing everyone beneath them. It is a dangerous precedent. Accountability cannot flow only downward. If the captain must answer, then so too must those responsible for ensuring that aging vessels are properly regulated, inspected and fit to carry the citizens whose lives depend on them.
The families mourning today deserve more than promises of a commission of inquiry. They deserve to know that every level of responsibility will be examined without fear or favour.
Monday’s parliamentary sitting should have reflected a nation in mourning.
Instead, it reflected a government determined to move on before the country is ready.
Guyanese are not ready to move on.
Nor should they.
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Once again, just like years ago with fire that killed the schoolchildren in the locked dorm, preventable tragedy occurs again in Guyana. The diaspora is sickened even more this time with more lives needlessly lost and missing.
It is my belief too that the PPP government is unwilling to finance the salvage of the bodies in the MV Barima Shameful, irresponsible, and apathetic behaviour once again in a regional tragedy of enormous proportions. Guyana has a long way to go to call itself developed, because it starts with a responsible and caring administration.