Devaki Krishnan

Devaki Krishnan

Tan Sri. Dr. Devaki Krishnan is a Malaysian politician. She became the first woman be elected to public office in Malaysia when she won a seat on the Municipal Council in Kuala Lumpur in 1952. She is currently a life member of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC).

Of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, Devaki was born in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, and was the eldest of six children. Her father was acting controller of Post and Telecoms Malaya, and her mother was a college-trained Tamil school teacher.

She was educated at St. Mary's School, Kuala Lumpur. Upon graduation she became a school teacher. In 1949, she became an active member of the Selangor Indian Association where she served as chairman of the entertainment and social committee. She was also actively involved in the Women's International Club where she spent her time raising funds for disaster victims.

In December 1951, Devaki learned from her husband that the community had nominated her to stand for election in the Kuala Lumpur Municipal elections. She was then approached by the late Dato' Onn Jaafar to become a member of the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP). "When I stood as a candidate, I needed help to address the audience, so I would sit with Datuk Onn and another lawyer, R. Ramani, at his office," she recalls, adding that the IMP quarters were in what is now the landmark Sultan Abdul Samad Building. In her 1952 election manifesto, she stated, "I will interest myself particularly in the lot of the women of Kuala Lumpur and in extending the programme of social work already carried out by the municipality." Devaki won election to the Municipal Council, thus becoming the first woman in the country to be elected to public office.

In 1955, she stood for a second term for the municipal council in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, and won. After her victory, she was paraded in an open-top car, accompanied by over 50 cars along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur.

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