Jakarta – An influential politician who helped topple Indonesia's previous president explained Thursday why he believes current leader Megawati Soekarnoputri should also go.

"If we want to see change in this country we have to change the present leadership into a better one, meaning more productive, more visionary, less corrupt or not corrupt at all," said presidential hopeful Amien Rais.

Rais, addressing a political forum organised by the information ministry, said he believed the introduction of direct presidential elections next year would be a catalyst for change.

As speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, which previously elected presidents, Rais was instrumental in ousting Abdurrahman Wahid in July 2001. Wahid's deputy Megawati took over the top job.

Recent opinion polls indicate that her party, currently the largest in parliament, will lose support in the general election on April 5. But as daughter of the country's founding president she is still seen as favourite in the presidential poll three months later.

Rais heads the National Mandate Party and is a former head of the country's second largest Islamic social organisation, Muhammadiyah. But he said: "If I base my political support only on Muslims it's a foregone conclusion that I will lose." "I want to reach out to different strata of our society," he added.