Diplomats in PPPC jerseys

Aug 02, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – It’s always encouraging when your country’s diplomats make international headlines. Unless, of course, those headlines read something like “Guyanese Diplomats Moonlight as Party Cheerleaders While Still on Payroll.” You’d think with all the decorum expected of international representatives, the bare minimum would be not showing up to partisan political events dressed like campaign mascots. But alas, welcome to Guyana, where diplomacy is less of a profession and more of a family lime.

Apparently, two of our fine diplomatic representatives recently returned home—not for urgent talks with the Foreign Ministry or to report on regional trade developments—but to don their party paraphernalia and partake in a political rally. There they were, smiling into the camera in matching party reds, perhaps unaware that somewhere, an international protocol officer was choking on their Earl Grey tea.

Let’s be clear: diplomats are not supposed to behave like this. Anywhere. Ever.

In the same way you wouldn’t expect a referee to wear the jersey of one of the teams or a judge to show up in court in a T-shirt that says “Team Plaintiff,” diplomats are expected to maintain the appearance—and substance—of neutrality. This isn’t rocket science. It’s not even common sense. It’s diplomacy—one of the oldest professions in the world (second only to the one with better evening wear).

Diplomats, by definition, represent the state, not a political party. Their job is to serve all citizens of their country—red shirts, blue shirts, green shirts and the untouchable class of people who wear beige to avoid confrontation. To participate in a partisan rally and to be wearing partisan coloured clothing doesn’t just break protocol—it breaks trust.

And then comes the pièce de résistance: Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s declaration, “I did not order them to come back to campaign.”

The sheer absurdity of the statement is breathtaking. First of all, he’s not supposed to be issuing instructions to diplomats. That’s the job of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You remember them—the people whose job titles don’t include the phrase “party whip.” And yet, here we are, parsing Jagdeo’s comments trying to determine if he did or did not call his diplomats home for a little boots-on-the-ground campaigning.

Let’s assume that he didn’t order them. Then the question becomes: Why are diplomats, who are still supposedly accredited to represent Guyana abroad, back home campaigning? Who approved their leave? Who’s paying them? (Don’t answer that—we already know it’s us, the taxpayers. And it hurts.)

This whole fiasco reeks of a nation being run worse than a cake shop. If after 28 years in government since 1992, Jagdeo does not understand diplomatic protocols, then Guyana is being administered worse than a cake shop.  Not a well-managed cake shop either, but the kind where the baker eats half the pastries, the cashier is someone’s cousin who can’t count, and the health inspector is conveniently never in town. In this sweet little arrangement, Jagdeo apparently sees no contradiction. After all, when you’re the baker, the cashier, and the cake taster, why not also direct foreign policy?

And yet, what should have followed this embarrassing breach of diplomatic conduct is equally predictable and depressingly absent: a swift recall. That is the standard response in any functioning diplomatic system. Someone slaps on the wrong badge or hugs the wrong politician, and boom—their return ticket is stamped before the ink on the photo captions dries. But here in Guyana, we hold off on discipline the way we hold off on fixing problems. We do so indefinitely and with a faint hope it’ll go away on its own.

The troubling part of all this isn’t just the breach of etiquette. It’s the precedent. If this behavior goes unpunished, what’s next? Ambassadors doing TikTok dances in party shirts? High commissioners giving stump speeches? Consuls in costume parades chanting slogans?

Diplomatic neutrality is not a quaint ideal. It’s the very foundation of a foreign service that is supposed to command credibility. Once that image is tainted, it’s not just partisan—it’s pathetic.

So, here’s a modest proposal: if you want to be a diplomat, hang up the party colours and learn how to speak in carefully worded euphemisms. If you want to wear your red shirt and shout slogans, fine—but then kindly hand in your diplomatic passport and don’t expect a taxpayer-funded per diem.

And to Mr. Jagdeo, a gentle reminder: You may be the General Secretary of the party, the Vice President of the Republic, and possibly the star of your own private sitcom. But you don’t run the diplomatic service. Or at least, you’re not supposed to.

But maybe that’s just me being diplomatic.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• diplomats, Guyana Elections, Peeping Tom, PPPC

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