Offered an opportunity to signal a pathway to deeper healing in the country following the catastrophic loss of life in the sinking of the MV Barima on July 18, President Ali yesterday spurned prospects for such by invoking his right to name all of the members of the inquiry under the Commission of Inquiry Act.
The President can hardly now expect sympathy from the opposition as it relates to the way forward. Now that the commissioners have been named there are some matters to be commented on and addressed.
The inquiry will be headed by Belizean jurist Godfrey P Smith. He is no stranger to the Guyana milieu having been one of the commissioners – again named by President Ali – inquiring into the 202o elections debacle. One dissonant feature of that inquiry was its failure to assign any culpability whatsoever to the disgraceful conduct during those elections of the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission, retired Justice of Appeal Claudette Singh SC.
When the Chairman of that Commission, retired Justice Stanley John had been asked why the final report of the inquiry made no adverse comment or recommendation on the conduct of the Chair, his reply was as follows: “I have had an opportunity to confer with the other Commissioners. Our report is very comprehensive and addressed all the matters set out in our TOR (terms of reference). It is now left to the Executive to act on such of the recommendations as it considers necessary”.
One could read into Justice John’s reply that the TOR could be interpreted in such a way that the force of a Commission’s findings could be shaped to censure only some of those culpable. This is immediately troubling as it relates to the current proceedings and with the experience of other Commissions of Inquiry here.
The immediate attention here falls on what will become of Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill. He is yet to take the honourable course: to accept ministerial responsibility and to remove himself from the locus of what is to be investigated. The immediate fear of all members of the public who are concerned with this matter is that the end of the Commission of Inquiry could see lesser mortals held culpable and, even if not exonerated, nothing adverse said or recommended against the Minister and his fellow Minister Deodat Indar.
That would be fully in keeping with the trend in other investigations such as the Commission of Inquiry into the Mahdia dormitory fire that claimed the lives of 20 children where unsatisfactorily the Commissioners did not summon then Minister of Education Priya Manickchand as a vital witness. That inquiry disgracefully produced little of worth and allowed even the fire service to escape unscathed despite its clear dereliction and the failings of others in the regional system.
It must also be pointed out that the investigation into the crash of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) helicopter in 2023 that claimed the lives of senior GDF personnel has never been formally released on the flimsy and fabricated grounds of national security and military operations. It is within this backdrop that the new inquiry will get under way and will instantly attract cynicism and doubt.
Concerns have also been raised publicly that one of the Commissioners, Captain Hamada Fouda, a senior maritime surveyor and compliance auditor with the Maritime Authority of Jamaica may have connections in Guyana that should preclude him from membership of the inquiry. Presumably such things would have been addressed in due diligence and they require urgent pronouncement from the government before proceedings get going.
Before formal proceedings begin, it is now the expectation that Minister Edghill would stand down or be removed as Minister of Public Works to ensure that there could be no risk of, or appearance of, influence on matters before the commission and witnesses who will be called. Thus far President Ali appears to be reluctant to do what needs to be done.
The inquiry will determine its own procedures but it certainly must encompass sittings in the communities most affected by this tragedy and in particular at Port Kaituma and ideally near to the site of the yet to be completed wharf which could have spared the MV Barima from having to journey there. Three days after the capsizing of the MV Barima, Parliament Office issued an Order Paper for today’s sitting of Parliament with the usual order of business for such sittings including consideration of a Financial Paper worth $54b to cover supplementary spending which will, of course, again highlight the obscenity of an 87-year-old vessel plying the treacherous currents of the Atlantic while oil wealth flows in. Perhaps there will be a supplementary order paper which is yet to be seen that will reflect the dedication of most of today’s sitting to an examination and debate on the capsizing which has resulted in the highest loss of Guyanese lives from a single event. Anything less than such a debate will underscore disrespect by the government and those who constructed the Order Paper to the families of the dead, the survivors and the relatives of those missing in the calamity. One hopes that better sense prevails at today’s sitting.
Discussion