Barima, Barima, Barima – What to say this Sunday

What this source establishes

In a Kaieteur News column, GHK Lall likens the repeated cry of 'Barima' to 'Tora, Tora, Tora' and Pearl Harbor, another tranquil Sunday morning shattered. He argues the sinking was not an accident but the predictable output of a governing party he characterises as almost wholly lacking moral character, so the question is why anyone is shocked. He writes that the tender board rehabilitation submissions already revealed the vessel's weaknesses and that someone in government should have refused to send it to sea. He rejects resignations as insufficient, demanding instead that those who made the appointments publicly admit failure.

The author’s argument, as stated

The MV Barima sinking was not an accident but the predictable product of a governing party the author regards as devoid of moral character, so resignations are insufficient — those who put the ministers in place must publicly admit failure.

Key claims

• The author likens the repeated cry 'Barima' to 'Tora, Tora, Tora' and Pearl Harbor — a tranquil Sunday morning shattered.
• The author says the lag between the sinking and the wider public learning of it was 'an agony in itself'.
• The author asserts tender board rehabilitation submissions and numbers 'reveal all' about the vessel's weaknesses.
• The author describes MV Barima as a passenger boat that doubled as a big cargo boat, and says someone in the PPP Government should have refused to certify it for oceanic or even coastal voyages.
• The author states the vessel was 87 years old and calls the disaster avoidable.
• The author argues calls for officials to step down should instead be calls for those who appointed them to admit failure with 'mea culpas'.
• The author says Guyana 'needs more than prayers and hymns' and calls for 'endless exorcisms', beginning with the PPP Government.

Quotations

• “It was a corpse, a floating dead, that belonged in the graveyard.”— GHK Lall, columnist
• “Better to call for those who put them in those positions to kneel down, then fall facedown, before the Guyanese people and admit their failures.”— GHK Lall, columnist
• “This country needs more than prayers and hymns. Guyana needs endless exorcisms.”— GHK Lall, columnist
• “87 years and that junk, that deathtrap, still commissioned to action?”— GHK Lall, columnist

Actors named

• GHK Lall, columnist
• PPP Government of Guyana, accused of moral failure and 'abdication of duty'
• President of Guyana, subject of calls to 'roll on home' (author says 'He did')
• MV Barima, 87-year-old vessel described as a 'deathtrap' and 'floating dead'
• Port Kaituma, Morawhanna and Kumaka, the vessel's route communities

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