Jewel Areng, 33, (right) celebrates his victory in a parliamentary by-election on July 18 in Mymensingh, northeastern Bangladesh. Areng, a Catholic from the indigenous Garo community is the only Christian lawmaker in parliament. (Photo by Soumo Areng on Facebook)
An indigenous Garo Catholic secured victory in a Bangladesh parliamentary by-election on July 18 to become the country’s youngest and only Christian MP.
Jewel Areng, 33, a candidate from the ruling Awami League party, collected 170,234 votes out of a total 362,694 ballots cast in the by-election for the Mymensingh-1 constituency in northeastern Bangladesh.
Areng is the son of country’s most prominent Christian politician Promod Mankin, who passed away on May 11 after long battle with illness.
The death of Mankin, the former state minister of Social Welfare, left the parliamentary seat vacant.
Like his father, Areng is now the only Christian member of the 350-seat Bangladesh parliament.
Christian leaders hope Areng would follow in the footsteps of his father and contribute to society, especially among the Christian and indigenous communities.
"We pray and hope he becomes an honest leader and express Christian values through his work. He needs to become a voice of minority Christians and indigenous people, and stand with them through good and bad times," Father Simon Hacha, a Garo Catholic priest and secretary of the Dialogue Commission in Mymensingh Diocese told ucanews.com.
"He must renounce any temptation to abuse his power and position, and must be committed to loving and serving the people. He will always need to stay close to the people to become a great leader one day," Father Hacha said.
Nirmol Rozario, secretary of Bangladesh Christian Association, echoed the same sentiments.
"Like his famous father, he will need to become a leader of all people by working sincerely for their development and welfare. We hope he will be equally committed to the rights and wellbeing of Christian and indigenous communities in the country," Rozario told ucanews.com.
As a young politician and lawmaker, Areng will need to overcome his ‘inexperience’ through hard work and sincerity, he noted.
"More and more public engagement and hard work will help him overcome his lack of experience in politics and leadership. He needs to learn political discourse and proper representation of people from senior leaders. This will help him prove his worthiness and become a true great leader in the course of time," Rozario added.
About 90 percent of Bangladesh’s estimated 160 million people are Sunni Muslims, while Hindus make up about 8 percent. The rest make up other religions including Buddhism and Christianity.
There are around 45 ethnic minority indigenous groups accounting for 3 million people in Bangladesh. About half the country’s estimated 600,000 Christians belong to indigenous communities.
