As the nation continues to mourn the heartbreaking loss of life in the MV Barima tragedy, the Ali-led PPP Government has once again embarked on political outreach. To many Guyanese, this appears less like governance and more like an attempt to shift public attention away from one of the darkest tragedies in our nation’s recent history.
We have witnessed this pattern before.
Following the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory fire in 2023, in which 20 Indigenous children lost their lives, the nation demanded answers, accountability, and meaningful reform. Today, after the MV Barima tragedy, many Guyanese are once again asking whether those responsible for ensuring public safety are being held politically accountable.
Since returning to office in 2020, the Ali-Jagdeo-led PPP Government has presided over a period marked by devastating tragedies, deadly fires, violent crime, and the loss of far too many innocent lives. While no government causes every tragedy that occurs, every government must answer for how it prepares for risks, responds to disasters, and protects its citizens.
That responsibility cannot be avoided through public relations campaigns or political outreach.
The grief of the families who lost babies, children, women, and men aboard the MV Barima cannot be erased by speeches, photo opportunities, or community meetings. Their pain demands answers. Their loss demands accountability. The Ali and Jagdeo led PPP government will be remembered as a government with blood on its hands.
History will not judge this Government by the number of outreach meetings it conducts. It will judge whether justice was delivered, whether lessons were learned, and whether those entrusted with the safety of the Guyanese people accepted responsibility when tragedy struck.
The people of Guyana must never allow national tragedies to fade from public memory without accountability. Democracy requires citizens to question those in authority, to demand transparency, and to insist that every life lost matters.
The families of the MV Barima victims deserve the truth. They deserve justice. And the people of Guyana deserve a Government that places accountability above politics.
Let every Guyanese peacefully raise their voice and demand what is rightfully theirs: truth, justice, transparency, and leadership that never forgets the value of human life.
