MV Barima tragedy shows profound failure

Dear Editor,

President Irfaan Ali’s statement at the opening of Amerindian Heritage Month at the Amerindian Village, Sophia^[1], is nothing but a cynical and desperate attempt to deflect blame for his government’s poor performance at the management of the Transport & Harbours Department (T&HD) under Mr. Juan Edghill. The administration’s handling of the MV Barima catastrophe stands as a damning testament to its insouciance (a cavalier disregard for human life) that permeated every phase of this tragedy.

The management of the vessel itself was a full display of lamentable negligence from the administration of the T&HD, revealing a systemic rot in oversight that prioritised political convenience over maritime safety and led by a Chairman of the Board who is a foreign service officer (Ms. Rosalind Rasul) and clueless as to what it takes to provide technical and administrative oversight to a ferry operator.

When the vessel sank, the state’s search and recovery operations were egregiously deficient—slow, disorganised, and woefully under-resourced, forcing bereaved families to rely on the very private citizens with his “fast response and fast boat” the President now vilifies because of the PPP Government incompetence.

Most unforgivably, the government’s response to the psychosocial and economic sequelae afflicting the survivors and the bereaved has been manifestly inadequate which exposes how out of touch the Minister and the Ministry of Human Services remain to the plight of the underprivileged. The mental health support extended to those grappling with profound post-traumatic stress has been derisory and pathetic at best; the economic assistance offered to families who have lost breadwinners and livelihoods has been penurious in both spirit and substance.

These are not merely administrative failures—they are moral failures, visited upon communities already rendered marginalised and precarious by decades of state neglect from this very PPP Government that has been in power for 28 of the last 33 years. In the face of such suffering, the government has offered not solace, but sophistry; not action, but obfuscation.

His administration’s record on this tragedy demonstrates a profound failure, and his attacks on the Opposition are another PPP attempt at “smoke and mirrors” to distract from the government’s own incompetence, culpability and its long-standing neglect of the very people he claims to champion.

The President’s warning rings hollow and empty when we consider that the gravest danger to the lives of Indigenous Guyanese came not from a political rival, but from a decrepit state vessel that his own government, under Mr. Juan Edghill, allowed to sail. The PPP administration was responsible for the oversight of the MV Barima, a responsibility it catastrophically failed to uphold.

The public rightly demands accountability for the more than one hundred lives lost. Yet, the ministers directly responsible, Juan Edghill, remain comfortably in office, shielded from consequence. This government’s commitment to justice seems to extend only as far as its own political survival.

The administration’s response to the crisis is not in genuine leadership but acts of deception that reminds one of the tales from “Animal Farm”, the book where “some animals were more equal than other animals”. While the President was delivering sanctimonious speeches, the government was scrambling to send its ministers on “outreaches” to neglected communities, suddenly promising basic services they had long denied the people over the 28 years that they ruled. But what is even worse, they continue to use the opportunity to deflect from their own incompetence because of 5 years of poor service from the Granger regime. Is the Granger regime the best benchmark, why not compare to 5 years of Mia Mottley’s performance in Barbados to fully expose how incompetent Irfaan Ali really is? Who does the PPP feel it is fooling?

President Ali’s behaviour is one that evokes contempt for the Indigenous and poor Guyanese and all of his mannerisms illustrate a viewpoint that he sees them as obstacles to be managed, not citizens to be served.

The President’s new Commission of Inquiry, though established, cannot erase the fact that this government has spent years neglecting the infrastructure and safety systems that could have prevented this disaster. The delay in salvaging the vessel and the government’s defensiveness over ministerial resignations indicate a desire for a managed outcome, not the truth. So once again the regime seeks to mislead the people of Guyana at another Amerindian Heritage Festival. Shame on President Irfaan Ali and his Ministers.

President Ali’s parable about wolves in sheep’s clothing is a clear act of projection. The PPP administration has for decades treated Indigenous communities as political pawns, offering promises while failing to deliver on critical investments. Now, in the face of a national tragedy of their making, they are seeking to paint themselves as the victims and their critics as opportunists. The families of the deceased deserve better than this political theatre. They deserve justice, and they deserve a government that acts with competence and integrity, not one that hides behind hollow rhetoric and blame-shifting.

References

1. Amerindian Heritage Month 2026 officially opens — dpi.gov.gy ↩