Dear Editor,
I want join our people to offer some words to all the first responders, be they members of the joint services, the local fishermen, and all who used their private boats to go out on the high seas to search for survivors and, in the process, retrieved bodies out of the water. Thank you. Every single one of you stepped up when this country needed you the most. Thank you!
But I have a special word of thanks for the divers, the lone Guyanese diver and the French dive team. I applaud you.
In a moment of profound national grief and desperate hope, you divers have done something remarkably brave, not just by diving into those perfidious waters, but by speaking your discovered truth with clarity, honesty, and restraint. I watched the press conference and I listened carefully to your words dear divers. You didn’t sugarcoat anything. You didn’t make promises you couldn’t keep. You told the families and this nation exactly what you faced and the unvarnished truth.
Let’s be honest, you arrived at that site on a mission of mercy. In just days, you completed 15 dives in conditions that I cannot even begin to imagine: pitch-black darkness, crushing currents, blinding mud, and a tangled labyrinth of ropes that turn every movement underwater into a contest at surviving safely. I listened to you divers describe your lived experience as you felt your way through that wreck like blind people, and it sent chills down my spine. No one above water can easily imagine your effort, even if we try.
And here is what struck me most, you did not exaggerate. Your humility in service to humanity shined through at all times. You did not make false promises. You told the families and this nation exactly what you faced, and in doing so, you honoured the bodies that are still under the water with the one thing they deserve most at this time: the unvarnished truth and the dignity that goes along with the truth.
Because of your honest assessment (and I could have seen it in your body language too and, the way you chose your words carefully), this nation can now better weigh the reality of this tragedy. Because of you, all who are evaluating this situation are in a better place to start making decisions. Difficult, painful, but necessary decisions about the next steps.
So today, France and our lone Guyanese diver, we salute you. Not just for lending us your skills, but for your integrity. You came to help, and you have helped, not by recovering every soul, but by recovering reality from the depths. That is a gift beyond measure.
Merci. Chapeau bas.
To the families and survivors, on behalf of our families, we wish you our deepest sympathies. May all the dearly departed souls, rest in peace.