Elisabeth Harper, the consummate diplomat

Sep 17, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

Elisabeth Harper was probably known only by those in political and diplomatic circles during the years while the PPP/C was in the political opposition.

Weeks after the PPP/C came to power in October 1992, I was dispatched to a number of our overseas missions, principally to assess the staff strength, it’s potential and effectiveness to execute the foreign policy of President Cheddi Jagan and his new government.

The point here is that as the Presidential candidate of the PPP/C Cheddi Jagan had pledged during his elections campaign to make drastic cuts to the budgetary allocations for the Office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Effectively, this meant that the foreign policy of the new government was to be pursued at a time when Guyana was a heavily indebted, poor country; when debt relief was an almost impossible achievement and when financial resources were scarce both nationally and internationally.

My task was to explain to the staff at Guyana’s overseas missions the financial challenges facing the new government, why cuts in the foreign ministry’s budget was necessary, and how it will impact the staff strength and execution of the foreign policy of the new administration.

It was during my visit to our High Commission in London in November 1992, that I met Elisabeth Harper for the first time. She was posted there as a Senior Foreign Service Officer (SFSO).

While conversing with SFSO Harper during my stay at the mission, I assessed her to be knowledgeable of the mission statement of the Foreign Ministry and the functions of a High Commission. She had read about political developments in Guyana and as a professional, was fully prepared to help further the tasks assigned to the High Commission, the foreign ministry and the foreign policy of the new government. Afterwards, I recognised SFSO Harper as a valuable human resource for the Foreign Ministry.

When she sat with President Ramotar, former President Jagdeo and I as the then General Secretary of the PPP and accepted the request to be the Prime Ministerial candidate in the 2015 election, it was probably the boldest political step she had ever taken to be recognised as a person with an unblemished character.

Ambassador Harper understood well that diplomacy is a communication process between states and political entities and that there is a fundamental difference between the person who decides on the content and the person who delivers the message.

Ambassador Harper has left us at a time when the world is currently experiencing unprecedented social, political and military upheavals in Asia, Europe and the Middle East; This distinguished daughter of Guyana has left us at a time when Guyana’s case concerning the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899 is currently before the International Court of Justice (ICJ); when climate change, food, energy and defense security have risen to the top of government’s foreign policy agenda;

And as Guyana’s Ambassador to CARICOM, the consummate diplomat has left us at a time when the region continues to be faced with serious security challenges including drug trafficking, organised crime human trafficking, migration, the threat of nuclear weapons and unfavourable trade tariffs all of which, cumulatively, are proving to be divisive at the national and international levels in some member states.

I have absolutely no doubt that given her admirable skills and diplomatic prowess, and knowing that international relations and diplomacy were her forte, had Ambassador Harper remained with us with all her freshness in thoughts, full of the energy and yet cautious as demonstrated by members of her calling, she would still be engaged regularly and in regularised negotiations as one of Guyana’s outstanding and a valuable human resource who could be relied upon to capably and effectively implement the main tenets of the Irfaan Ali administration’s foreign policy.

Yours faithfully,

Clement J. Rohee

Minister of Foreign Affairs (1992-2001)

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CARICOM, Clement J. Rohee, diplomat, Elisabeth Harper, PPPC

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