Amerindian Heritage Month - the best celebration

Sep 11, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – The best manner in which Guyana’s indigenous can be honored in this their Heritage Month is through a credible Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the MV Barima catastrophe. An avoidable tragedy now written in blood on the books of Guyana. The callous, reckless, and negligent, who contributed to the deaths of likely well over a hundred mainly working stock Guyanese, must be identified. Including and beyond ministers and managers. Let there be a COI that inspires closure, not more quarreling.

I call on the PPP Govt., the sole intellectual authors of this national disaster, to show some belated respect to Guyana’s grieving indigenous people. Crown them in this Amerindian Heritage Month. Give them an MV Barima COI that rises above its makeup, its murk. Be honest with them, this once. Aid the COI to wrench itself free from its sticky muddy anchors, and serve the interests of Guyana’s indigenous. Lift the boat from the depths that serve as its tomb. Help the COI unseal its secrets. Cease-and-desist with the games now integra; to salvaging a death boat and its cargo of stilled bodies and extinguished breath. Take the straight path, I urge the powers in the PPP Govt. Present Guyana’s First Citizens with the birthright of firstborns.