Dear Editor,
Martin Carter’s immortal words, “This Is the Dark Time, My Love,” once captured the fear, anguish and oppression that overshadowed British Guiana. Although Carter wrote about a different national crisis, his words resonate painfully today as Guyana mourns the victims of the MV Barima tragedy—and confronts a government response marked by delay, silence and inadequate accountability.
For the grieving families, this tragedy did not end when the vessel went down. Their suffering continues with every unanswered question, every unfulfilled promise and every day that passes without truth, justice or closure. They have already endured the unbearable loss of their loved ones. They should not also be forced to endure the additional torment of official inaction and uncertainty.
This is indeed a dark time: families waiting for answers, a nation searching for the truth, and unexplained delays keeping wounds painfully open. Their grief must never be treated as a political inconvenience, a public-relations problem or yesterday’s news. Behind every victim was a human life—a parent, child, spouse, sibling, relative or friend—whose absence has left a permanent void.
Carter transformed national suffering into a call to conscience. The MV Barima tragedy must similarly awaken the conscience of Guyana and its leaders. The Government has a solemn duty to raise and preserve the vessel, safeguard all available evidence, complete a credible and genuinely independent investigation, provide truthful answers, account fully for all public expenditures, establish responsibility, and deliver fair and timely compensation to the victims and their families.
The entire nation deserves answers:
Why has the MV Barima not been raised and properly preserved? Why has the investigation not been completed? How have the public funds allocated after the tragedy been spent? When will the findings be released? When will the families receive adequate compensation? Who will accept responsibility for the failures that caused or compounded this tragedy?
These are not partisan questions. They are questions of humanity, justice and public accountability. Guyanese at home and abroad are entitled to ask whether the Government’s failures reflect indifference, arrogance, incompetence, political calculation—or a callous disregard for human suffering. At what point does unexplained delay become official indifference, and official indifference become institutional cruelty?
No sophisticated messaging, political strategy, data analytics or artificial intelligence can conceal the human cost of inaction. Public relations cannot raise the vessel, uncover the truth, comfort the bereaved, compensate the injured or bring the dead home. Only honest, compassionate and decisive leadership can begin to do that.
Until truth, justice, accountability, compensation and closure are delivered, the darkness surrounding the MV Barima will remain a permanent stain upon this administration.
History will judge the Government not by the sophistication of its explanations, but by the urgency, compassion, transparency and integrity of its response—or its failure to respond. The MV Barima tragedy has become a defining test of this administration’s leadership. Unless it acts decisively, humanely and transparently, it will also become its defining legacy.
Yours truly
Hon. Albert Baldeo
Community Leader and Judicial Delegate
“Little Guyana,” Queens, New York
