Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The National Democrats social organization founded by media magnate and former Golkar Party heavyweight Surya Paloh is looking at becoming a full-fledged political party, but remains pragmatic about the groundwork yet to be laid.

Surya, owner of the Media Indonesia daily newspaper and Metro TV news channel, said on Tuesday that the group would need to meet three requirements before it could apply to the Justice and Human Rights Ministry to be officially recognized as a party.

"First, we must have 10 million to 15 million members," he said. "Second, we must verify that figure through a survey. And finally, we must hold a referendum among all members on whether to turn the association into a political party."

The National Democrats' secretariat last week announced that the group had 30,000 members.

Surya said he and the other leaders of the group had decided it was too early to declare the move into politics, and stressed that once it did, the National Democrats would not be mere "cheerleaders" for other parties, but "political winners" in their own right.

"The National Democrats are only three and a half months old," Surya said. "We haven't achieved much yet in the way of widespread public acceptance, so our focus right now is on getting our message out there."

Among the group's public education campaigns was a national symposium on Tuesday in Jakarta discussing the restoration of Indonesia, a central theme for the National Democrats.

Surya stressed that the group's main aim was to raise public awareness about the direction of Indonesia's democratization that began in 1998, and to take part in the national debate influencing this evolution.

"I believe we'll need two or three years of campaigning before we can seriously consider setting up as a political party."

National Democrats advisory board chairman Siswono Yudo Husodo said the group would not push ahead with the plan if the political climate was not conducive to it. He cited a recent proposal by legislators at the House of Representatives to increase the parliamentary threshold to 5 percent from the current 2.5 percent. The threshold is the percentage of total votes nationwide that a party must win to be represented in the House.

"To be a meaningful political party, we'd have to be in the House, and for that we'd have to meet the threshold," Siswono said. "Should we lack the resources to mobilize that many voters, it would be better for us to keep the organization as a force for moral change."

He declined to say whether this meant the National Democrats would become a think-tank and political lobby, given its current lineup of renowned intellectuals, legislators and notable community figures.