HOW does a nation react to an opposition that uses one of the saddest tragedies in CARICOM’s history to score cheap political points, using methodologies that pierce the soul of the average citizen?
I am not on Facebook but Leonard Craig publicly announced on the Freddie Kissoon Show that three APNU parliamentarians said that the Guyana government refused request for help with divers from other countries in the search for bodies after the MV Barima capsized in the Atlantic Ocean last Saturday night.
This is not true. So why was it said and why no apologies as yet? The answer lies in the attitude to political behaviour by the opposition since it lost power in 2020. The opposition does not understand the profound, dialectical changes that have taken place in Guyana since Opposition Leader Desmond Hoyte died.
Topping the list are David Hinds and Tacuma Ogunseye. They belong to a Guyana long gone. They live in a Guyana that does not understand their language of daily racial sermons. What the opposition did in the Adrianna Younge drowning death was self-destructive.
When the girl died and answers were not forthcoming, an entire country poured out its collective heart. My research informed me that across ethnic and class lines, the nation showed sympathy for the Younge family and wanted to see justice. The opposition then moved in and turned the tragedy into a farce.
The first victim of the vulgarity and farce of the Adrianna Younge conspiracy was the President himself. The President met with the parents and relatives of the dead girl and promised everything they would ask for to find explanations for the girl’s death. The opposition conspiracy involved attacking the President.
The foolishness of the opposition in the Adrianna Younge tragedy is that instead of building support among a grieving nation, they turned the event into a political battle ground. What is fundamentally wrong with the opposition is their inability to read Guyana’s population.
There are hundreds of thousands of Guyanese out there who admire President Ali and think that he is doing good things. The opposition loses crucial support among those people because every event of a major nature they turn into an anti-Ali showdown and such narrow politics turns people off.
The President has a 62-acre farm and because he owns that farm, the opposition wants a commission of inquiry into his personal, financial life. Imagine how people were angry that Guyana must have a commission of inquiry into the small business that the President owns.
From the Adrianna Younge debacle to the President’s farm fiasco, the opposition has learnt nothing about the Guyanese nation. They have turned an immense tragedy of enormous national pain into a political battle field once more and they have lost. They have lost because they simply do not understand the post-1990 generation in Guyana.
In the midst of an unspeakable tragedy such as the sinking of the MV Barima in the Atlantic Ocean, three APNU parliamentarians announced that the government refused divers from foreign countries. Which political points did the three APNU parliamentarians score from this unforgivable assault on the survivors and victims of the disaster?
The people who believed them are the people who listen to David Hinds and praise him. And who are these people? A tiny school of misguided souls. Once the government denied the offer for divers was turned down, and the nation thought that the three parliamentarians were being nasty, the opposition self-destructed once more.
But simple politics and the politics of commonsense could have saved face. The combined opposition, given the gravity of the tragedy and given the obvious insult to the victims, could have offered an apology.
To date, there is no such apology. Yet in the same breath, these people keep chastising the government for mistakes they are claiming the government made on the ferry disaster and want Minister Edghill to resign.
Which decent citizen of this country will accept the opposition’s request for the minister’s resignation when they know that the opposition is propagandising the tragedy and using the souls of those victims for unsavoury political purposes? And which is a graphic example? Three APNU parliamentarians told Guyanese that foreign governments offered to send divers but the government refused.
What is taking place in this country with the opposition will see the Barbados scenario arriving in Guyana at the next general election. Twice the electorate in Barbados did not award any parliamentary seats to the opposition. It is going to happen here. Even before the next elections, Guyana may see the withering away of opposition parties.

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.