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