THE Opposition coalition was given a free lesson in shock and awe when the PPP/C announced its Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2015 regional and general Elections, in Her Excellency Ambassador Elisabeth Harper, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. One question which immediately comes to mind is: Why are they shocked especially? By ‘they’ I particularly refer to David Granger and some of the Burnham clan who are still around.Unlike APNU’s scandal-tainted choice for Home Affairs Minister, Winston Felix, Mrs. Harper is a consummate professional and a Diplomat par excellence ,who has been in the Public Service for almost three decades. She would have worked under the despotic PNC (now APNU) regime, where she would have witnessed massive denial of employment in the Public Service to those who were not card-carrying PNC members.
She would have witnessed that while Guyana’s Foreign Service reached its epitome at that time, the PNC’s capacity to deliver essential services had virtually collapsed. Infrastructure remained severely dilapidated. The supply of potable water was limited to a small proportion of the population; drainage and irrigation systems had deteriorated to the point where they were no longer useful; and health and education services had become so inadequate, that social indicators for the country had fallen to among the lowest in the Caribbean.
The monies that were pumped into the Foreign Service by the despotic PNC regime at that time was used on two levels, first to ensure that Guyana’s image on the international stage remained one of exaltation; and secondly, to ensure that the economic and social reality in Guyana remained concealed from the international limelight.
Mrs. Harper would have also seen the post-1992 catalytical transformation currently taking place under the PPP/C Government. She would have witnessed first-hand the return of democracy and the rule of law; equality among all Guyanese; prosperity and the resurgence of Guyana’s economy, which can be described as nothing less than an miracle, given the state it was left in by Carl Greenidge and Co.

What the Grangers, Burnhams and others a did not cater for is that Mrs. Harper does not view life through the prism of race, but as a Guyanese and a human being who could distinguish between right and wrong.
There are some Facebook politicians who claim that Mrs. Harper doesn’t have a constituency or that she cannot deliver anything for the PPP/C at the 2015 elections. The fact is that they are running scared, because they know the caliber of the woman and what she brings to the table. They are worried of her presence on the slate of Guyana’s only multi-racial party that has created an environment where people of all communities are ensured sufficient safeguards to their life, property, dignity, and honour, besides facilitating the fulfillment of their needs and aspirations. Mrs. Harper sees a Government that has embarked on determined steps towards a brighter future for this nation. A future without discrimination or exclusion of anyone. Rekindling the excitement of past years is a Government committed to public service solely to give everyone a better quality of life.
In other words, the appointment of Mrs. Harper has political genius written all over it; the opposition coalition was just checkmated.
CEDRIC LORD