Exclusive interview with First Lady Linda Ramkalawan |07 November 2020
First Lady Linda Ramkalawan speaking during the interview (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
‘I was never seen by my husband’s side at political events, but my support has always been silent’
Our First Lady, Linda Ramkalawan, has won the hearts of many. She is described as a person who has always been afar and neutral despite her husband’s long spanning political life. But as she said herself, she is first and foremost married to a priest, not a politician! She was and still is the backbone of her family with a strong religious grounding. Seychelles NATION brings you an exclusive chat we had with the First Lady yesterday at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Seychelles NATION: Who is Linda Ramkalawan?
Mrs Ramkalawan: I was born on October 19, 1963 at St Louis and I come from a family of three children – a brother and a sister. I am the youngest of the family. I grew up at Bel Ombre and I did all my primary studies at Bel Ombre and the secondary studies were done at Victoria. At Senior Secondary School, former President Danny Faure was my classmate. After Senior Secondary School, I attended the hotel school for a year where I did a course in front office.
Seychelles NATION: Tell us about your career
Mrs Ramkalawan: After school, I joined Le Meridien Fisherman’s Cove hotel as a receptionist for two years and realised that this job was not my calling as during these days, flights were arriving early morning and late nights. I had to get to force the clients to vacate their rooms which was a hassle sometimes. Gradually I moved to accounts, doing a bit of everything, nowadays it is called income audit. We had to do all the invoices by hand and record all the revenues in a big ledger that covered almost the whole of the table. Gradually I took other positions in accounts – cashier, creditor, and debtor and accounts supervisor. In 2001, I was promoted to Financial Comptroller then later on to director of Finance. It’s been 39 years of career with Le Meridien Fisherman’s Cove hotel. Last year, I decided to resign for two reasons. One because the job was quite demanding and I had to stay quite late at work. When it came to month’s end it was added stress and demanding. There was also a change in management of the hotel and I did not like their work philosophy. Secondly, my youngest son who was only 13 at that time was coming home to an empty house. Depending who arrived home first, he was left alone to his own devices and I felt it was not healthy for him to be doing that.
Seychelles NATION: When did you meet Father Ramkalawan?
Mrs Ramkalawan: I met him in 1984 when he was preparing for the service for him to be ordained as a Deacon. At that time I was part of the St Luke’s Church at Bel Ombre. I was part of the choir, not that I can sing but I was part of the choir and we were practicing for the service as it was a joint choir with St Paul’s church. He had to drop us home after the choir practice and this is how I got to know him. As he was coming to do a service at Bel Ombre, he called me to do reading of the Holy Scriptures. This is how it started. Just a year after, in May 1985, we got married. It’s been 35 years since we are married. After five years, we had Samuel (29 years), then 13 months later came Caleb (28 years) and 13 years later came Amos who is now 15 years old.
Seychelles NATION: For 30 years, your husband has been involved in politics and was mainly in the opposition, how did you manage that?
Mrs Ramkalawan : It was not easy! Actually when he was being asked to be the leader of Parti Seselwa, it was not something I wanted him to do. I remember I even cried about it and telling him not to do it. He said ‘OK, I will go back to the group to inform them!’ But then again it was my voice against so many voices asking him to take the leadership of the party. Eventually I lost and he told me he will give it a try for three months to see how it will go. But I knew right then, it will never be three months. I knew if he starts it will be something that will go on. It was not easy especially in the early days, when the political environment was a bit tense, threatening. But, being Christians, we prayed daily for his protection and God’s guidance. He believed that he had a mission and it was God’s mission for him to take on this task and to change Seychelles. Way back then, there were lots of things happening that were not correct and he felt it was his duty to try and change the direction Seychelles had taken.
Seychelles NATION: It has been recorded in history that in 1990, Wavel Ramkalawan preached a sermon, which was broadcast on the national radio station, in which he questioned the practices of the one-party government and advocated for greater freedom. That brought a change in the life of Mr Ramkalawan, how did you deal with it?
Mrs Ramkalawan: He was banned from being on the radio. I felt a bit scared then that he had spoken out and came in the open. Because during those days, you did not go or speak against the government out loud. It was always done in whispers and people suffered in silence. I felt he could be at risk for doing that. It was a bit scary for me. Samuel was born in 1991, I felt that the whole family could be attacked. We did not get any threats as such, but I know at some point there was a plan to separate us. I received tapes of his conversations as his phone was bugged. I also received anonymous calls and there was a plan to get him focused on something else. Apart from that, personally, I did not receive any threats.
Seychelles NATION: This is the 6th time that Father Ramkalawan participated in the Presidential elections, five times he lost. You were the backbone, tell us how you supported him.
Mrs Ramkalawan: As everybody knows, I have not been very vocal and I am not on social media. I have not been participating in any political events apart from attending one or two annual conventions of the party. I have not been seen at his side during any political activities. But the support has always been silent at home when he feels a bit down or let down. I am here to listen to him and give him space to vent his feelings. I always tell him, I did not marry a politician, I married a priest. So do not expect me to be Winnie Mandela or others. I told him, you expect to be in church every Sunday and to help wherever I can in church but do not expect me to be involved in politics.
Seychelles NATION: Do you feel that was the right choice?
Mrs Ramkalawan: I feel it was. Now I have certain obligations to be seen in public as the First Lady, but still where politics is concerned, my stance remains the same.
Seychelles NATION: We haven’t had a First Lady for many years and lots of attention will be on you. Many people expect you to undertake some projects like the previous three First Ladies. What are you planning to do?
Mrs Ramkalawan: I have been thinking about it since my husband got elected. Definitely I do want to work with children, but my role and the projects I will undertake are not yet clearly defined. First of all, I do not have an office as obviously there was no budget this year. But in January, I think things will become clearer. But before January I still want to do something involving children. These are the things that I will be working on and as my role becomes more defined, I will talk more about it.
Seychelles NATION: Share with us how was your husband after Election Day on October 24
Mrs Ramkalawan: He came home early morning and did not sleep at all. He had a 30 minute rest and then we proceeded to church for him to celebrate mass. For about a year or so he had not been celebrating mass but we have been attending church at Bel Ombre. He wanted to celebrate mass that morning and straight from mass we went to the Electoral Commission’s office for the official election results. He was very emotional on that day, especially when he talked about his parents because his parents were very supportive of what he was doing. His mum even attended rallies when she was alive and I know she would have loved to see that day happen.
Seychelles NATION: Has your life changed since then?
Mrs Ramkalawan: Not too much. I have had to attend several official events. I had to deal with lots of messages and phone calls. But I really do not want my life to change that much. I know it will have an impact. After all, the job that he has is for five and a maximum of 10 years and then life goes back to normal. So you cannot separate yourself from reality and live up in a balloon. Then when the term is over, you are back as an ordinary citizen. For now, I still go out, do my shopping in town and keep the family traditions going.
Seychelles NATION: You caught everybody’s attention by how well our First Lady presents herself. Any secrets?
Mrs Ramkalawan: Everybody who knows me, know that I do not usually wear make-up. But now that I am wearing make-up, everybody sees a difference. For my official events, I also got a new hair dresser and she also does my make-up. My dresses are quite simple but it was a friend who helped me get a few dresses down from Australia as she was optimistic that LDS would win the elections. She told me to better prepare myself.
Seychelles NATION: What advice would you give to people at this moment?
Mrs Ramkalawan: I think we have started on the right foot with the transition between the two Presidents and it is an example for the rest of the people. We all should look up to this example and not let politics divide us as a nation. It is important that we try to work together as we all know we are in a very difficult situation with Covid-19 and it’s up to all of us to chip in and help put our country back on its feet. It is not time for us to be divided but to ‘travay dir!’ (work hard). I will be here to help heal the population and my door will be open to the public.
Vidya Gappy
