Clement James Rohee (born 16 March 1950) is a Guyanese politician who has been General Secretary of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) since 2013. Under the PPP government, he served as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

from 1992 to 2001, Minister of Foreign Trade from 2001 to 2006, and Minister of Home Affairs from 2006 to 2015.

Life and career

In his youth, Rohee joined the PPP's Progressive Youth Organization. Following the PPP victory in the 1992 election, he served as

from 1992 to 2001."Meet the New Cabinet Members"
, GINA. He was Chairman of the

Group of 77 The Group of 77 (G77) at the United Nations (UN) is a coalition of 134 developing countries, designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the United Nations. There were 77 fou ...

in 1999. At a ceremony marking Guyana's assumption of chairmanship in January 1999, Rohee said that the international monetary system was at "risk for devastating failure" and was "severely flawed", pointing to the

Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...

and calling for reform of the system. From 2001 to 2006, he was Minister of Foreign Trade and International Co-operation. During this time, he was also the Ministerial Spokesperson of CARICOM regarding negotiations at the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

from 2002 to 2006, as well as the Lead Ministerial Spokesperson of CARICOM regarding

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

from 2004 to 2006. In September 2006, he became Minister of Home Affairs in a cabinet reshuffle after the PPP won a fourth term in the 2006 election. Rohee is a member of the Central Committee and the Executive Committee of the PPP. He has also served as a member of the PPP's Education Committee, as Secretary of the Central Committee responsible for International Affairs, and as Executive Secretary and Convenor of the PPP's Race Relations Committee. He has also served on the editorial board of the PPP journal ''Thunder''. At the party's 29th Congress, he received the 11th highest number of votes (507) in the election to the 35-member PPP Central Committee on August 2, 2008. He was then elected to the PPP Executive Committee and the ''Thunder'' editorial board on August 12, 2008. In 2012, because of his oversight portfolio over Guyana's security sector, Clement Rohee was accused of being responsible for the deaths of three unarmed protesters in the Guyanese mining town of Linden during a protest against economic conditions in that town. He subsequently denied any responsibility for the killings at a special inquiry held in Guyana after the incident. In July 2012, Guyana's opposition-dominated parliament passed a no confidence motion against Rohee, which urged him to resign over parliament's lack of confidence in him running the security sector. The PPP government refused to adhere to the opposition motion. The speaker of parliament later ruled that the opposition motion had no legal merit, and as such lifted the gagging motion against Rohee. The PPP Central Committee elected Rohee as General Secretary of the PPP on 19 August 2013. Rohee succeeded President

Donald Ramotar Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar (born 22 October 1950) is a Guyanese politician who was President of Guyana from 2011 to 2015. He was also the General Secretary of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) from 1997 to 2013. Political career Ramotar jo ...

, who nominated Rohee for the post."Clement Rohee elected as new General Secretary of PPP"
INEWS Guyana, 19 August 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rohee, Clement 1950 births Living people Foreign ministers of Guyana Trade ministers of Guyana People's Progressive Party (Guyana) politicians