Ambika Samuel: grassroot level social activist

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 said.

Samuel was elected to the parliament at the general election held on November 14 from the Badulla district, representing the National People’s Power party.

She is the daughter of a plantation worker’s parents and has been a grassroots 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 practiced 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 our people’s main problems is the language barrier, so I taught Sinhala and English in areas where that was unavailable.”