The CDI congratulates the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Republic of Indonesia on the recent appointment of Mr. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas as Indonesia’s Minister of Religious Affairs.
Mr. Qoumas’ appointment demonstrates the essential role that our sister party, PKB, plays in the administration of President Joko Widodo and its contribution to the welfare of Indonesian society at large.
This appointment also illustrates the growing influence of the Humanitarian Islam movement, which Mr. Qoumas co-founded in 2017, and whose efforts to foster “solidarity and respect among the diverse people, cultures and nations of the world” PKB is assisting on the world stage.
Resolutions adopted at CDI Executive Committee meetings held in Brussels, Rome and Yogyakarta have affirmed that “the spirit of universal human fraternity that animates UDHR, Christian humanism and the global Humanitarian Islam movement represents a compelling moral, ethical, religious and, indeed, political basis for close cooperation between CDI member parties, and between people of goodwill of every faith and nation” (Rome, October 11, 2019), and acknowledged that “Western humanism, Christian democracy and Humanitarian Islam are kindred traditions” that “may serve as the foundation for a 21st century alliance to promote a rules-based international order founded upon universal ethics and humanitarian values” (Yogyakarta, January 23, 2020).
As PKB Chairman H. Muhaimin Iskandar declared in his January 24, 2020 keynote address to the CDI Eurasia Forum held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: “The National Awakening Party is determined to ensure that Indonesia plays its full part in this effort and will carry the banner of Indonesia’s contribution, for the future of humanity and global civilization.”
In light of these considerations, the CDI invites our Indonesian sister party, PKB, to deepen and expand its cooperation with our organization, and thereby assist the Centrist Democrat International in realizing our shared aspirations for a better world.
Brussels, January 25, 2021
