HGP Nightly News – Attorney General Anil Nandlall has accused opposition parties of exploiting the pain and anger surrounding the MV Barima disaster to revive their political fortunes.
His criticism followed opposition protests in the National Assembly and sustained calls for Public Works Minister Juan Edghill and Deodat Indar, the minister with responsibility for MARAD, to step aside.
“Unfortunately, the opposition has seized this moment to exploit it for their narrow political gains,” Nandlall said during Issues in the News.
He accused opposition representatives of using the trauma, grief and anguish of affected families to advance partisan agendas.
Nandlall also criticised the presence of opposition figures around search-and-recovery operations, alleging that they entered restricted areas, flew unauthorised drones and placed cameras and microphones before grieving relatives.
The search zone was an active law-enforcement and recovery site, he said, where state agencies were performing statutory duties under difficult conditions.
Authorities previously warned that unauthorised drones posed a danger to aircraft conducting low-altitude searches.
Nandlall contended that some opposition politicians were more interested in capturing images for social media than supporting the operation.
He went further, suggesting that their public expressions reflected satisfaction at the political pressure facing the government rather than genuine grief.
“What you are seeing is almost glee, almost happiness that the government is in this dilemma,” he said.
That assessment was based on Nandlall’s interpretation of their conduct and expressions. It cannot establish what individual opposition members felt or intended.
The Attorney General reserved some of his strongest criticism for Monday’s sitting of the National Assembly.
Opposition MPs chanted and pounded their desks while demanding accountability over the disaster. They declined to ask oral and supplementary questions, allowing the government’s $54.89 billion supplementary spending package to pass without detailed opposition scrutiny.
Nandlall accused some MPs of laughing, dancing and treating the protest as “a musical display.”
The Assembly, he argued, should have reflected the solemnity of a country mourning one of the worst disasters in its history.
“It was converted into an indecent, vulgar melee,” he said.
He also alleged that photographs of children and other victims were displayed without their families’ permission. According to Nandlall, some relatives later complained that they had not authorised the use of those images.
That claim would require confirmation from the affected families and the MPs responsible for displaying the photographs.
While Nandlall framed the protests as political exploitation, calls for accountability have not come solely from opposition parties.
Relatives of the dead and missing have demanded the recovery of their loved ones’ remains, a clear account of who was aboard and answers about why the state-owned ferry was allowed to sail.
Some families continue to gather at Charity, hoping that those still missing can be recovered from the wreck.
The Amerindian Peoples Association and other civil-society organisations have called for enforceable transportation-safety reforms, stronger oversight and an inquiry capable of commanding public confidence.
Transparency International Guyana has questioned whether officials and agencies whose conduct may be investigated should have any role in overseeing the process.
The Vigilant Political Action Committee has warned against allowing the captain and crew to become scapegoats while management, regulatory and ministerial decisions remain unexamined.
Indigenous leaders have similarly argued that the disaster exposed longstanding failures in transportation serving hinterland and riverain communities.
Opposition parties have called for Parliament to help shape the Commission of Inquiry and for a separate technical marine safety investigation. They have maintained that scrutiny of the government is not an attempt to politicise grief but a constitutional responsibility.
They have also argued that Edghill and Indar should resign or proceed on leave so the inquiry can examine agencies under their portfolios without any appearance of interference.
Neither minister has been found responsible for the disaster.
President Irfaan Ali has appointed a five-member international Commission of Inquiry to examine the vessel’s maintenance, seaworthiness, loading, passenger records, regulatory oversight and emergency response.
The commission will determine whether negligence, misconduct, dereliction of duty or institutional failures contributed to the tragedy.
The political argument now turns on a difficult distinction: when does public protest exploit grief, and when is it the pressure necessary to secure accountability?
Nandlall sees an opposition using tragedy for political revival. Families, opposition parties and civil-society groups have said they are seeking something more basic, a fair process, the whole truth and consequences for every failure the evidence reveals.
