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Wait for the COI
(Kaieteur News) – President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday appeared to have reached that point with his decision to keep Public Works Minister Juan Edghill and Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar in office while a Commission of Inquiry investigates the MV Barima disaster.
The President says the fate of the two ministers will depend on the findings and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry. That may sound reasonable on the surface. It is not. The question is not whether Edghill and Indar are guilty. The Commission has not yet begun its public hearings, and nobody should prejudge its findings. The more immediate question is whether ministers whose portfolios are directly connected to the circumstances surrounding a national maritime disaster should remain in charge while that investigation is taking place.
In any serious democracy where accountability is more than a slogan, the answer would be obvious: step aside temporarily. This would not be a declaration of guilt. It would be a declaration that the integrity of the inquiry matters more than political convenience. The MV Barima disaster was not a minor administrative mishap. Seventy-three people have been confirmed dead, scores were rescued, and at least 30 remain missing and feared dead. Families are still waiting for answers, and some are still waiting for the remains of their loved ones.
Yet the President is effectively telling a grieving nation to wait.
Wait for the Commission.
Wait for its recommendations.
Wait for the findings.
And in the meantime, the ministers remain exactly where they were.
That is the problem.
An independent Commission of Inquiry must not only be independent; it must be seen to be independent. Public confidence is part of the credibility of any investigation. When citizens see ministers whose ministries may come under scrutiny continuing to exercise executive authority throughout the inquiry, questions about impartiality will inevitably arise.
The President says he does not want to interfere with the Commission. Fair enough. But temporarily relieving the ministers of their responsibilities would not constitute interference. It would be a basic precaution to protect the credibility of the process.
More troubling is the President’s apparent willingness to dismiss the growing chorus demanding political accountability. The Opposition is calling for action. Civil society is calling for action. Ordinary citizens are protesting. Survivors and relatives of those who perished are demanding answers. Families of the missing are pleading for the vessel to be raised so that they can recover their loved ones. These are not abstract political voices. These are grieving Guyanese.
And when relatives of the dead are standing outside the Office of the President demanding accountability, the response from the highest office in the land cannot simply be that a Commission will decide everything later.
Government must understand that accountability is not something that begins after an inquiry. Accountability begins with the conduct of those entrusted with public office while the inquiry is taking place. The President has chosen to stand behind his ministers until the Commission tells him otherwise. That is a political decision, and he should own it. If the ministers are ultimately cleared, they can return with their reputations strengthened. If the inquiry finds serious failures, the public will ask the obvious question: why were they allowed to remain in charge while those failures were being investigated?
There is nothing unreasonable about asking two ministers to step aside temporarily in the face of a disaster of this magnitude. What is unreasonable is asking grieving families to trust a system that appears unwilling to take even the most basic precaution to demonstrate accountability. The MV Barima disaster demands more than promises of an independent inquiry. It demands independent-looking governance. President Ali should not wait for the Commission to tell him what political responsibility requires. Sometimes leadership means acting before the report is written. The country is watching. The families are watching. And history will record not only what the Commission finds, but how the Government responded while the nation waited for answers.
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