By GHK Lall- I said it early, didn’t I? The PPP Govt had to prove me and some other Guyanese right, didn’t it? The MV Barima Commission of Inquiry (COI) had all the ingredients of a total farce in the making, and that was just proven. It has nothing to do with the billion-dollar award to lift the tragic boat from its watery grave. Still, I would recommend that Guyanese pay close attention, and never lose sight of that salvage exercise. One lapse for one second, and a bouncer could remove one’s head.
How much the Barima COI is a full-fledged farce came out in a walkabout. The furriners paid a visit to the Kingston Wharf, looked around, and they beheld a Guyanese political marvel. A fresh, spanking, sparkling wharf in tiptop condition. One never seen before by the natives. The Queen Elizabeth II or the USS Abraham Lincoln could dock there, and every member of the crews of those two ships would break out into an ear-to-ear smile. Is this Guyana something, or what? The waiting Kingston Wharf reception, that greeted the COI Quintet was one fit for a visiting monarch. Staff starched and proper; everyone helpful to a fault.
Question for fellow Guyanese: if the PPP Govt could go to such lengths to prep that wharf, so as to give an artificial, non-real-life, con job of a presentation, what would it not do with the MV Barima that went down on the way back up? I have always said that when anyone wants to know what makes serial criminals tick, study their history, push self into their shoes, then start thinking like them. The PPP Govt serves as one of the most foolproof criminal case studies to be found anywhere this side of the sun.
The Kingston Wharf, the MV Ma Lisha (will get the name right soon) were all as clean and smooth as brand-new babies, just freshly scrubbed and washed, without a speck of dirt or any other funny stuff within sight. If one wants to see dedication and industry in action, there both were. The Kingston Wharf and the MV Ma Liska could have had their maiden visits and being ready for a maiden voyage.
The picture presented to this international COI was perfect. No congestion. No overloading. No fare beaters. No touts. No rodents. No impatient, rowdy passengers with their baggage. Not one PPP Govt minister, not one senior public servant (PPP powerhouse again), and not one arrogant Freedom House operative (more PPP royalty) busting any line, and clearing ordinary people out of the way. No excess baggage. No heavy-duty machinery. No nothing. What the COI saw wasn’t just a farce, it was a fix intended to fool the unwary.
Whoever was behind that masquerade should be charged with a felony. Gawd! Things are crooked in this country. Again, I ask: if for a wharf to create the best first impressions (one furthest from truth or daily reality in real-time) for the COI team, then what machinations could be involved with lifting that boat? A boat with many political secrets. A boat that still is capable of producing the incredible, despite being totally underwater for over two and a half months.
Try this for unbelievable: the MV Barima still has a bunch of smoking guns underwater 11 weeks later. Go for it, brother BK. Show how some magic could be worked. The PPP Govt is paying for the lifting of a boat. It isn’t paying for the lifting of any veil. Guyanese are left to connect the dots and decide how big a fool their government is trying to make of them.
I believe that if the PPP Govt could make the weather and tides behave to suit its twisted objectives, it would put on that show for the COI. For the last time, but one: The MV Barima COI is a fraud being sold to Guyanese as fairy lights. It blinks, it winks, and it stinks. The redone Kingston Wharf is the biggest clue so far.
