It has been a couple of weeks since President Ali announced that Major General Joe Singh retired would head the COI into the May 21 Mahdia fire.
We do not yet know the names of the other commissioners although the President did say on Wednesday he had some individuals in mind. We would encourage a youthful composition that is not soaked in the culture of the 1900s and is willing to think outside the box.
Commissions should be expansive, blunt, bold, and if appropriate, should upset and unsettle those in authority as they arrive at the truth of what happened and why.
As for the Terms of Reference these are yet to be decided and the members’ inputs will be decisive in the final outcome of what is the largest loss of life since the Son Chapman tragedy. While the COI should assign responsibility it can also examine the seemingly faulty chains of authority that led up to the event, as well, one hopes, the cultural, social and economic context that surrounded it. Because what is clear is that the interior of our country is a highly dysfunctional and dangerous place for young people.
As such here are some considerations for any commission.
First one notes the Ministry of Education asked UNICEF in 2021 to assess the conditions of all 24 school dormitories across the country. Clearly they thought there were numerous problems that needed fixing and by commissioning the report they accepted that the dormitories were to some extent their responsibility. This was the only good thing they did.
We do not need to go over the details of the ensuing report except to say that what was clearly highlighted was that fire prevention facilities and systems were woefully inadequate.
In fact perhaps we do need to repeat the relevant section in case there is any doubt that those who received the report on behalf of the government were made aware of the immediate dangers:
“Buildings have no central fire alarm/warning/management system. Some buildings have fire extinguishers in poor condition and absence of signage and inadequate placement.”
Anyone, including the subject minister, who had read those two sentences – and we assume they did since they commissioned it – should have been greatly alarmed and immediately taken steps to ensure the glaring deficiencies were addressed forthwith and then, as is always necessary, followed up on, especially given the history of fires at dorms and schools in the past ten years. Moreover this warning of a potential disaster arguably could have been of such importance to be circulated at the Cabinet level since the issues crossed many portfolios and an awareness of whose responsibility was for what could have been aired and recorded. It is instructive to the feverish priorities of this government that the revised Production Sharing Agreement was presented to and discussed at Cabinet.
The tepid response by the Education Minister to questions from this newspaper that the report was “shared with the relevant agencies” appears almost callous but one can understand it coming from a politician. What we have not heard is a single expression of remorse and accountability. Any commission must ask the Minister of Education exactly what she did after reading the report and if, in retrospect, she is satisfied with her response. Meanwhile the Ministry of Local Government whose former disgraced minister seemed more preoccupied in playing politics and other digressions should also be answerable as it has been established that his ministry was also in the chain of responsibility.
The reports from November 2022 and February of this year by the Guyana Fire Service also went unheeded and we can see how our political dysfunction at the local level may have played a part in that. Meanwhile any COI needs to ascertain who made the bone-headed decision to send the bowser with the capacity to carry 2500 gallons of water to wash the streets of Lethem ahead of Independence Day celebrations.
What we had at Mahdia was a perfect convergence of ineptitude and laissez faire governance at several levels. It was a microcosm of our society and completely avoidable even with the alleged perpetrator striking the match that started it all. The irony is she is the only one currently being held accountable.
This 14-year-old’s frame of mind also leads on to other factors surrounding the tragedy that should rightfully be assessed in any COI: the larger context of the continuing woeful conditions of indigenous Guyanese, and the institutional inequalities that result in lower access to public services from water, electricity to healthcare, and in this particular matter education. We have just seen for example how not one student from Regions 1, 7, 8,or 9 made it to the top secondary schools. That is not surprising nor that those who do go on to secondary education have a far higher failure rate than coastland counterparts.
Of those who do, they often need to go to dorms because there are fewer such schools in communities and no means of transportation to those there are because of non-existent roads.
So parents reluctantly release their brightest offspring into the arms of the state which has for decades been utterly delinquent in its responsibilities to protect them. What was most extraordinary coming out of the Nigel Dharamlall fiasco – and these two issues are greatly intertwined – also involving a 16 year-old-girl, was that the agency Childlink said it had prepared some 4000 reports on similar cases over the past ten years.
That is more than one per day, and smacks more of the systematic rape and abuse of a particular sector of our society. And it was this pervasive fear that clearly led to the locking of the dormitory doors to keep the children away from the sexual predators that prowl like wolves wherever young girls dwell in this country. There are currently 77 individuals charged for various child related rape/sexual activity crimes pending in the High Court.
Another factor that should be considered by any COI is the effect of mining on interior communities. There is no industry in this country so destructive and lawless. It has destroyed the very social fabric of numerous interior communities as well as their environments. Mining camps and towns such as Mahdia and Bartica are places that attract prostitution, alcohol abuse and drugs. This is what counts for development in the interior – not properly paved roads for children to go to school in, nor even public transportation be it by boat or bus.
Any serious Commission of Inquiry will consider these larger contextual factors in its terms of reference.
What is hoped is that this COI becomes a blueprint for change not only in infrastructure and basic fire prevention systems. That ought to be easy. But we need a deeper change in the mentality of those put in charge of looking after this nation. As for who bears responsibility for Mahdia, the commission must be cautious not to conclude that because it appears so many are to blame, no one is.
