WHOEVER is living in this country and has not been able to see the contorted minds we have in this nation should leave Guyana and never come back because you are incapable of understanding anything in the world.
There are minds we have in this land that you cannot find elsewhere. Do we want to give these mentalities excessive latitude over one of the saddest tragedies in Guyana’s history?
Tell me in which other country you will find what I will now enumerate. An organisation with the name Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) remained silent without a public voice or a written note condemning five months of attempts to rig the national election by the incumbent.
The same GHRA, instead was part of a violent advocacy in September 2020 in Cotton Tree that suggested that two African youths were killed in racial celebrations by PPP supporters for the PPP’s 2020 election victory.
An organisation named Transparency International- Guyana Inc did not utter even a moment of condemnation or pen a paragraph of shock at the lack of transparency during the five months of attempted rigging. Both these organisations described the 2025 transparent and free national election as questionable.
An opposition party that used a child’s accidental drowning for cheap political gains and publicly supported low-life rioters who tried to burn down part of Guyana on April 2025 by referring to these low-life looters as scrapeheads whose economic situation people must show sympathy for. The PNC parliamentary leader, Terrence Campbell openly endorsed such a sentiment.
The opposition selected a lawyer, Daren Wade to observe the post-mortem of the drowned girl. The opposition selected its own pathologist to be part of the post-mortem. Mr. Wade was replaced after he said he endorsed the conduct of the post-mortem. The opposition pathologist was derogated by the opposition itself.
Against this background, the same GHRA wants a commission of inquiry into the MV Barima ferry tragedy of July 2026 and six of the commissioners must come from the opposition party. The same Campbell wants the National Assembly to be responsible for the composition of the commission of inquiry. Let’s deal with the miasmic, carcinogenic idiocy of both suggestions.
At a commonsensical level, a commission of inquiry is composed of experts. What is a literature professor doing on a commission of inquiry to determine hospital deaths? What is a medical doctor doing on a commission of inquiry to determine a bridge collapse?
At a commonsensical level, the medical doctor should replace the literature professor and civil engineers should enquire into the bridge collapse. Can someone enlighten me by informing me through my phone – 614-5927 and my email – fredkissoon@yahoo.com which of the 65 members of parliament are educationally qualified in maritime engineering, marine biology, environmental science, and oceanography?
The GHRA’s suggestion is so atrocious that it is indicative of the genre of minds I referred to above. So, the GHRA wants the opposition to select six commissioners and no doubt David Hinds will be one. And on his show, Hinds will tell his viewers that the cleaning woman, the lunch provider, the chairman’s’ driver and the chairman’s security detail are all Indians and the commission is a racial thing.
Is the government so naïve that it cannot see this? Are there Guyanese out there who believe Hinds will not go on such a rant?
Campbell wants the House to decide on the composition. The issue is not who decide the make-up of the judicial inquiry. The main question is what are the experience and qualifications of those who will sit on the commission. We are sleep-walking right into Adriana Younge 2.0.
If the opposition wants to be allowed to name names, those names must be professional people. But those people if selected need to do research on the Adriana Younge tragedy. They will see that those who chose them rejected their findings not for scientific reasons but for political opportunism of the most dangerous kind.
I remember the wise words of a guest on the Freddie Kissoon Show whose identity I cannot recall. He said that those clamouring for a forced renegotiation of the EXXON deal, will be the very persons to blame the government if the global community begin to put pressure on Guyana.
If you do not know your country after living in it by now, then move on to another land. Any world class experts on ferry disasters the Government of Guyana chooses to sit on that commission will be ridiculed by a school of irrational, anti-government critics that want the government to fall. That commission’s findings will not be accepted by this insane school. I know this because I know my country. Maybe you don’t.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
