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R. Lumengo: In Public Life as a Man of Faith
Written by Hon. Ricardo Lumengo, Member, Swiss National Council
Monday, June 1, 2009
Address to the UPF World Summit of Peace
May 28-June 2, 2009, Seoul, Korea
It’s become evident and a necessity to consider the world as a family living according to the same principles. Every human being is a member of this family. That’s also where the idea of human rights and the fundamental rights of all individuals finds its justification. As a believer, I consider that this truth constitutes one of the foundations for the believer’s investment into political action.
Most religions consider that God has endowed man with the task of managing and administering this world. This comforts me personally in my situation as a believer engaged politically. I’m convinced that I have to affirm my identity as a believer and lead my action on the foundation of universal principles such as social justice, equality, solidarity as well as tolerance towards and acceptation of minorities, etc. Peace and security are actually the crowning of these principles.
Unfortunately, especially in the societies of Western Europe, when we try putting this belief into action we meet barriers and intolerance more and more often. On the one hand, based on the laicity of the state, the non-believers hardly accept that a believer would take such an active part in public, social or political life, and on the other hand, even some believers don’t understand that a politician would be a believer. [Note: laicity is the concept of a secular society, meaning the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as the absence of government involvement in religious affairs.]
For most people [in Europe], social and political action shouldn’t be linked to religion. This seems to be very different in Africa or America, where politicians can freely affirm their religious convictions. Some Western European nations are still thinking of eradicating the sorceresses and sects! In this context, we need to encourage the social and political engagement of believers in order to realize the universal principles in all paths of life.
I rose very quickly from being elected as a city representative to becoming a state and then a national parliament representative. As the first black man in those parliaments, I’ve witnessed an amazing trend. The more my adversaries were trying to oppose me because of my skin color and the more my supporters increased. A natural separation between the two sides took place. I believe that as the conscience of the people continues to rise in Western Europe, the same separation will take place when I start affirming the existence of absolute, spiritual values as well. But as I experienced in the racial battle, I expect to have quite a few more spiritual and substantial newspapers fights to go through until I can freely speak about the universal principles that UPF is upholding.
Ricardo Lumengo was born in Angola. A student activist, he was persecuted by the dos Santos government and sought asylum in Switzerland in 1982. He studied law at the University of Fribourg and became naturalized as a Swiss citizen. He was elected to the Biel municipal council in 2004, to the cantonal council of Berne in 2006, and to the Swiss National Council in 2007, becoming its first member of African origin.