Ambika Samuel doubles Malayaha representation in Sri Lanka’s parliament
By Nisheni Atapattu
COLOMBO – Ambika Samuel, the first Malayaha woman to secure a seat in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election, says others from her community will follow.
“I am the first to enter politics from here, and my brothers and sisters will undoubtedly follow,” Samuel told reporters.
Samuel was elected to parliament from the Badulla district representing the National People’s Power (NPP) part at the general election held on November 14.
She is the daughter of plantation worker parents and has been a grassroots-level social activist.
“I studied political science for A/Level and was fascinated by Marxism, and I realized what we studied in school and what was practised in other countries were two different things,” she told an interviewer ahead of the election.
“I was drawn to politics because I wanted to do something for my community. But people like me found it hard to enter politics because there are already established persons from our community.”
After A/Levels, she earned a diploma and worked for the Education Cooperative Society. “One of the main problems our people have is the language barrier, so I taught Sinhala and English in areas where that was not available.”
Malayahas are Indian workers who arrived during the British period. They were denied formal citizenship after independence through a citizenship law enacted by a national assembly in the style seen in European nation-states, though they were born on the island. Some were returned to India.
Citizenship was eventually given through the Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act, No. 35 of 2003, but the community, many of them plantation workers, still faces many issues.
Samuel, as well as generational politician and former minister Jeevan Thondaman, will now represent the community in the 10th Parliament and hopefully ensure quality education, healthcare and many other facilities.
-economynext.com
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.