Griffith: Paria officials' testimony at CoE 'difficult to watch'

POLITICAL leader of the National Transformation Alliance (NTA) Gary Griffith says the Paria officials who testified at the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the February 25 diving tragedy were "difficult to watch for many reasons."

But he said it should remind the public of the importance of having trained workers with "proper leadership qualities to make the right decisions when these situations occur."

On February 25, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry, Rishi Nagassar and Christopher Boodram were doing maintenance on a 30-inch pipeline at Berth 6, belonging to Paria Fuel Trading Co Ltd, Pointe-a-Pierre, but were sucked into the pipeline. Only Boodram survived.

Paria's acting technical lead Catherine Balkissoon and its terminal operations manager Collin Piper testified on Wednesday.

In a news release, Griffith said their testimonies showed "untrained civilians" are charged with "making life and death decisions.

"They were starved of operational information because of decisions by those who are ultimately responsible, the ones who shut down the National Operations Centre which was designed and built at great cost to taxpayers for situations just like this."

He said while it's understandable that a person may "defer (sic) from risking lives, the very nature and ethos of members of the protective services and the defence force is to train to acquire the skills to do just that.

"This is why during the 1990 attempted coup I saw my fellow soldiers eagerly answer the call to face the country’s enemies to democracy, and this is why on a daily basis the brave men and women of the TTPS, who I had the honour of leading, face the criminal elements who are often armed with high-powered weapons, which is why it is not uncommon to see, whilst civilians scramble to run away from gunfire, police officers running into the direction of gunfire."

He said people join the protective services knowing there will be risks as they do their duty, but training helps mitigate against it.

"And whilst it is ever present in the minds of these heroes, the concept of ‘No man left behind’ is etched in the DNA of those who answer that call to serve. This is why I am convinced, if given the chance, some would have volunteered to risk their own lives to rescue the lives of the divers.

"So whilst heroes are built differently, so too are cowards."

He said cowards "dismantle and shut down the National Operations Centre for political reasons...thrust ill-equipped civilians into dreadful situations, hiding in the background, shirking their responsibility.

He continued, "They take vacation whilst the country is experiencing its bloodiest year ever. They play golf with celebrities whilst the country is in the full grasp of criminals, and they hide away in their palace whilst hundreds of thousands of citizens are being negatively affected by floods."