PIB to form party in six months

PIB to form party in six months

Noted economic analyst Sjahrir revealed on Tuesday a much-
anticipated plan to found a new political party, which will come
into play in six months.

Sjahrir said that the party would represent the political
aspirations of his organization, the Association for a New
Indonesia (PIB), which he established in March of last year to
provide a political education for young Indonesians.

"The party should be established within the next six months --
if not sooner," he said; he was quick to add, however, that the
PIB had yet to come up with a name for the party.

Accompanied by colleagues Taufik Darusman, Chatib Basri, and
Rocky Gerung, Sjahrir spoke at a press conference at the National
Museum on Tuesday.

PIB, he said, had compiled and published CabinetWatch, a
regular report on the performance of the Cabinet under former
president Abdurrahman Wahid and incumbent President Megawati
Soekarnoputri.

The report mainly focused on uncovering and reporting
potential corruption among officials.

Sjahrir said that PIB had recruited some of the brightest new
graduates from the country's leading universities.

Sjahrir said that they had studied all the new developments in
the government through polling, research, and media analysis in
the so-called War Room".

He said that the plan to set up a party had been unanimously
agreed upon on March 28 by at least 21 representative offices of
PIB in Indonesia, including Jakarta, North Sumatra, Riau, West
Sumatra, West Java, Yogyakarta, Central Java, East Java, Bali,
South Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. -- JP