Marijke Indradebie Djwalapersad (28 December 1951) is a Surinamese politician who served as Chairperson of the National Assembly of Suriname from 1996 until 2000. She was the first women to serve as chairperson. In 1999, Djwalapersad founded the political party Naya Kadam, but was not re-elected.

Biography

Djwalapersad was born in the

Saramacca Polder Saramacca Polder is a resort in Suriname, located in the Wanica District. Its population at the 2012 census was 10,217. And the majority of the population is of East Indian descent. The Saramacca Polder was created between 1894 and 1904. The main ...

on 28 December 1951. She was active as a translator in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Sarnami Caribbean Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbeans and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. It is mainly based on the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects. These Hindustani dialects were the most spoken dialects by the Indians who came as i ...

Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally amo ...

and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

. In 1991, she joined the Progressive Reform Party (VHP), but failed to be elected. Djwalapersad was first elected to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

in 1996. After the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

, there was a disagreement within the VHP whether they should become part of the government. Five elected members including Djwalapersad split from the VHP, and formed the

Basic Party for Renewal and Democracy The Basic Party for Renewal and Democracy ( nl, Basispartij voor Vernieuwing en Democratie) was a political party in Suriname. 2005 elections At the legislative elections (25 May 2005), the party was part of the People's Alliance for Progress th ...

(BVD) which would enter into a coalition government with the

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Deve ...

. On 10 October 1996, Djwalapersad was elected Chairperson of the National Assembly of Suriname, and was the first women to serve as chairperson. During her tenure as chairperson, she cancelled all international trips by Assembly members, because the economic climate did not allow for it. She also ended payment for absentee Assembly members. In 1999, Djwalapersad founded the political party Naya Kadam, but remained chairperson. She was not re-elected during the

2000 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2000. Africa * 2000 Ethiopian general election * 2000 Ghanaian presidential election * 1999–2000 Guinea-Bissau general election * 2000–01 Ivorian parliamentary election * 2000 Ivorian presiden ...

, and

Jagernath Lachmon Jagernath Lachmon, also Jaggernath Lachmon, (21 September 1916 – 19 October 2001) was a Surinamese politician. He was one of the founders of the Progressive Reform Party (VHP), an Indo-Surinamese party founded in 1947 of which he served as Pre ...

was chosen as the new chair. Djwalapersad would become the only female chairperson of the Sanatan Dharm Foundation, an organisation for practitioners of the

Sanātanī ''Sanātanī'' () is a term used to describe Hindu duties that incorporate teachings from The Vedas, The Upanishads, and other Hindu religious texts and scriptures such as ''The Ramayana'' and ''The Bhagavad Gita'', which itself is often described ...

faction of Hinduism. In 2019, Djwalapersad was awarded the Golden Gavel Award by the .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Djwalapersad, Marijke 1951 births Living people Speakers of the National Assembly (Suriname) Members of the National Assembly (Suriname) Surinamese women in politics People from Wanica District