Twenty-five days have now passed since the closure of the Expressions of Interest for the salvaging of the MV Barima, and the PPP Government still cannot, or will not, tell the Guyanese people which company or companies are being engaged to salvage the vessel.
This is wickedness. This is shameless behaviour. This is an insult to the intelligence and dignity of the Guyanese people. Evil to say the least is how this Government is choosing to treat the families of more than 100 people who lost their lives.
This was the largest tragedy in modern Guyana. More than 100 lives were lost. Families were shattered. Children lost parents. Parents lost children. Husbands and wives lost each other. Yet, instead of treating the recovery of the MV Barima as an urgent national priority, the PPP Government has allowed 25 days to pass without the families knowing about the salvager.
What kind of Government does this? What kind of leadership is this? Where is the urgency? Where is the transparency? Where is the respect for the dead and their grieving families?
The Government owes Guyanese a proper explanation for this disgraceful delay. Let me say what many Guyanese are already asking: is this delay deliberate? Because the longer the MV Barima remains on the seabed, the greater the concern about the preservation of evidence that could be critical to the Commission of Inquiry.
There have already been serious questions about the vessel, including questions about its condition and seaworthiness. Those questions must be answered by evidence. But if evidence is allowed to deteriorate while the Government drags its feet, then the public has every right to question why.
The PPP Government cannot claim to want the truth while behaving as though recovering the most important piece of evidence in this tragedy is an inconvenience.
This is beyond incompetence. It is political wickedness. It is gross disrespect. It is shameless. And it is an insult to every Guyanese who wants answers.
President Irfaan Ali and his Government should be ashamed of this behaviour. More than 100 people are dead, and the families are still waiting. The nation is waiting. The evidence is sitting at the bottom of the sea and the Government is moving at a pace that gives Guyanese every reason to question whether the salvaging of the MV Barima is truly being treated as a priority.
Enough of this madness! Salvage the vessel. Preserve the evidence. Tell the nation who is doing the job. Let the Commission of Inquiry examine the evidence. And let the truth come out. Because when more than 100 Guyanese lose their lives, government silence is not an acceptable response.
Twenty-five days are 25 days too many.
*Ganesh Mahipaul, M.P.*
