By GHK Lall- A tragedy of catastrophic proportions is now Guyana’s to manage. An old passenger ferry boat went to the bottom. According to news reports of Saturday, 73 bodies have been recovered and 76 rescued. Taking the official count of 179 passengers on board the MV Barima, it means that 30 of them are still unaccounted for.
Over a week after the disaster, there is still uncertainty about how many passengers, paying or not, with a ticket or lacking one, were onboard the vessel. The answers that have been provided have led to more skepticisms, questions. The leadership that is needed in this time of heavy loss and grief has failed to inspire, with adjustment of details shared, and the blame game growing in strength. Guyanese live it. I hear it.
On whose head should lie responsibility for this national human disaster? Is it the minister that has oversight? Is it the Cabinet that sits and reviews policy decisions, spending on capital projects, and such? Is it the leadership of the PPPC Government? Does the political opposition taken as a unit, or in its separate parts, have some responsibility of its own, in taking a disaster and engaging in ‘mischief?’
The crew of the MV Barima on its last voyage has been subject to intense scrutiny. The management team of the Transport and Harbors Department has been sent on leave. The fear is that there could be tampering with evidence. One senior government representative chose to use “noise” to describe in derogatory fashion the anger over the disaster, and the demands for straight answers.
Straightforward representations even in small amounts would have given citizens a shot of confidence. Those in charge more focused on sharing the truth with families and citizens, and not on seeking out opponents to score political points. There could be no worst time to be about public relations than when scores of lives are lost, with more likely to follow, as the days prolong. Men of stature and men observant of the demands of principle take responsibility.
A disaster occurred with many lives lost and many families hurting. The people under whose watch that disaster occurred have one clear duty in front of them. Man or woman, they have to go. In real countries with serious standards, CEO’s do not look to distance from disasters. They do not pass that tainted baton to captive administrative departments. They do not shift responsibility to those who are lower on the power ladder.
I now give a quick peek at how leaders in countries with standards react in the face of disaster. In South Korea, the MV Sewol disaster that resulted in the loss of over 300 lives, 250 of them children, was a contributor to the impeachment of President Park Guen-hye. Broader issues of corruption, targeting protesting South Koreans, attempts at coverup, and inconsistent and inaccurate releases in the initial hours of the MV Sewol disaster all led to her downfall.
Her ceremonial Prime Minister, Chung Hong-won had resigned with days of the Sewol disaster. It was not enough for furious South Koreans, with President Park impeached later. In South Korea’s MV Sewol ferry disaster, there are some strange parallels to Guyana’s MV Barima disaster, of which Guyanese should take note. Providing inaccurate information, minimizing loss, shifting blame, targeting dissenters, and massive corruption in the background.
In Latvia, 54 people died when the roof of the Maxima shopping center collapsed on November 21, 2013. Two days later, Latvian President Andres Berzins termed the disaster a “murder of defenseless people” and said that “the perpetrators should be arrested.”
On November 27, six days after the disaster, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis took responsibility and resigned. Some Latvians thought that the mayor of the city where the roof collapsed, Zolipude, should have resigned, as he was more directly involved. In Argentina, Egypt, and Greece, responsible ministers resigned immediately after train crashes that caused the loss of dozens of lives in all of those countries.
In each of these foreign situations, those sitting in government did the decent thing and resigned. There was no blowing smoke, no dismissing of outrage, no police action against civil society protestors. Citizens are still waiting for someone in Guyana’s government to take responsibility and resign. I do. It is not with a one-man decision about a panel. It is of where the will of people should decide, seven-seat majority or none. Let all be put on public trial.
