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 Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

, Sarnami,

Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (Sranantongo, "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language from Suriname, in South America, where it is the first or second language for 519,600 Surinamese people (approximately 80% of the popu ...

and

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

. 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 repr ...

in 1996. After the

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

, 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 (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 Dev ...

. 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, 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'' (Devanagari: ) is a modern term used to describe Hindu duties that incorporate teachings from the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Agamas and other Hindu religious texts and scriptures such as the ''Ramayana'' and its many versions, a ...

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

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Djwalapersad, Marijke 1951 births 20th-century Surinamese women politicians 20th-century Surinamese politicians 21st-century Surinamese women politicians 21st-century Surinamese politicians Living people Speakers of the National Assembly (Suriname) Members of the National Assembly (Suriname) People from Wanica District Indo-Surinamese people Surinamese politicians of Indian descent