Exactly what was feared happened–instead of having the space and time to grieve the loss of the four divers who died inside a Paria underwater pipe, families and friends were treated to the blatant politicisation of their tragic deaths.
As the dead divers were being seen off by family and friends, the news was dominated by questions over the names recommended to investigate what happened before, during and after the accident that took their lives.
The result was that Eugene Tiah resigned from the team set up to investigate the accident, a move that then led to the decision by others to withdraw. Eventually, the Government replaced the planned investigation with a Commission of Enquiry.
Our industrial relations are notoriously toxic because most things are framed in an adversarial way–‘workers versus business owners’ remains the default starting point for any labour issue, stuck in old and increasingly irrelevant class-centric battles.
Our politics are also stuck in the same toxic adversarial world. Even when we are talking about the tragic deaths of four citizens with children, parents, siblings and friends left to mourn their passing, the aftermath of the events in that underwater pipe has been shaped around UNC versus PNM, not around the human beings affected.
This surely must stop if we are serious about learning with errors and making things better, irrespective of who is in power or who is in opposition. Anyone looking coldly at the recent events would be aghast at the level of the debate around Eugene Tiah’s appointment.
Yes, he comes from the sector and, incidentally, comes with a strong track record in driving health and safety standards in the industry. That is why he was recommended by the sector itself.
And the suggestion that someone who comes from the sector is automatically biased is, frankly, bizarre.
Take aviation, for instance. The sector is one of the most obsessed with health and safety for obvious reasons, with both regulators and the industry itself working together to make flying safer.
Although thankfully rare, when accidents happen, the work is done with sector experts as well as regulators and official investigators. And, incidentally, regulatory body members and investigators tend to come from the sector as, after all, their experience is crucial for the investigative process.
It is true that the recent issues over the safety of Boeing planes showed that, without careful oversight, the relationship can become too close for comfort but, by and large, it has worked in our favour, driving aviation safety up, not down.
Then we come to the usual attacks on foreign organisations. Again, it is difficult to square this political circle we created in T&T.
If a local expert is sought for anything, one of the political parties will claim that the person is in cahoots with the other party. After all, if not careful, here in T&T, even lamp posts may be accused of political bias.
The alternative to avoiding the usual local bias charge would be to go outside the country for expertise. But then the allegation is that foreigners don’t take our interests at heart and will be biased towards whoever pays them to do the work.
On top of that, we also have the regular assumption of conflict between attorney and client, as if representing someone once must automatically turn a professional engagement into some kind of lifelong friendship or unwavering political support for someone.
There is nothing wrong with a robust and vibrant political arena, as this is what democracy is about. But something is seriously wrong when party politics becomes the end game for everything, with each party taking turns, depending on the occasion, in politicising everything from the most trivial to the gravest of issues.
The death of four citizens in such a tragic way cannot and must not be reduced to party politicking.
The death of four citizens in such a tragic way can and must be respected first, and explained later, so that no other citizen is lost in the same way in the future.
No approach chosen–an investigating panel or a Commission of Enquiry–will reach the outcome we need if it is to be battered by party politics even before the work starts.
The outcome we need is a clear and transparent understanding of what happened, together with an equally clear and transparent set of actions to avoid similar accidents in the future.
It is time our leaders pause in respect of the dead and pause in respect of the country to then re-engage in a sensible, calm and rational way to find out what happened and to learn the right lessons.
Above all, they must remember that this is not about a group of anonymous divers who lost their lives.
It is about those close to four men who died in such a tragic way–Kazim, Yusuf, Henry and Rishi–and a surviving colleague, Christopher. It is also about current and future divers who deserve to know how their lives will be protected in the future.
All of us, and especially them, deserve a lot more than what we have seen so far.
