What nations have (or have had) democratically elected heads of state where that head of state was a member of some minority or other that could reasonably be called “oppressed” (even if only to some minor degree) in that nation?
Feel free to criticize the question as I’m sure there are better ways to ask it or better questions to ask in its neighborhood.
-FrL-
First that comes to mind is Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan’s female former prime minister). Not sure if she was democratically elected or not.
EDIT: Okay, during open elections, Bhutto’s party won the most seats in the Pakistani National Assembly. Then her party named her Prime Minister.
First to mind for me is South Africa and Nelson Mandela, who served from '94 until '99.
Not trying to be picky, but to my understanding, that was the first election in which black Africans were allowed to vote, meaning Mandela wasn’t exactly a “minority” candidate in that election.
-FRL-
No problem, it was their first and I misunderstood what you were looking for.
Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are Scottish, and Canada has had a number of French/Quebecois Prime Ministers. There are not insignificant numbers of Scots and Quebecois who are actively pushing to secede from the UK/Canada. On the other hand both groups are well represented in their respective governments, so probably not what you are looking for in spirit.
Women aren’t actually minority in Pakistan (or most other places) although they’re certainly somewhat oppressed by our standards.
Alberto Fujimori , former PM of Peru is the son of Japanese immigrants. People of Japanese descent aren’t particularly oppressed in Peru as far as I can tell, though.
Like Bhutto, Fujimori was head of government rather than head of state.
Fujimori was President. Ms Bhutto was from a a minority, she was Sindhi, but then Pakistan dose not have minorities or majorities as such. And there have been army generals in Pakistan who have been female, so I don’t really think that counts.
The first female President in the World was Iceland’s Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who was a single mother.
In Victorian Great Britain, two-time Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who was Jewish, of Italian or Spanish Sephardic origin. Dunno how strong anti-Semitism was in G.B. at the time; I suspect that particular bias grew more prevalent and virulent until WWII.
Clarification: Disraeli was Jewish only in the ethnic sense; he was baptized Anglican and was Anglican all his adult life, according to that Wiki article which I didn’t bother to fully read before posting.
Benito Juarez, president of Mexico five times from 1858-1872, as a full-blooded Indian was a member of an oppressed minority (although the majority of Mexicans are mestizo, with some Indian ancestry).
Evo Morales of Bolivia is the first full-blooded Indian to serve as president of that country, although in this case it’s an oppressed majority, since 55% of the population is full blooded and most of the rest mestizo.
Presidents of India:
Gail Singh (Sikh)
KR Narayanan (dalit/untouchable)
^
Irrelevent, the President in India has no power. But the present PM Manmohan Singh is a Sikh and Sikhs were at the receving end of an operation by the Indian Army in the 80’s.
Across the border in Pakistan, Balochis rebelled in the 70’s, were smited and have had two Presidents since, Farooq Leghari in the 1990 and Asif Zardari today.
An Irishman was PM of the UK, Duke of Wellington, Anglo I know, but really Brits have never cared much about the distinction.
It should be pointed out that the US situation is rather unique, what with slavery and all. Minority and disadvantaged groups have often reached political power in various countries.