Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Young members of the country's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, announced Sunday the establishment of the Matahari Bangsa Party (PMB) at the Jogja Expo Center in Yogyakarta.

The ceremony marking the establishment of the party, which has a red sun logo, was attended by over 5,000 people, former Muhammadiyah leader Ahmad Syafii Maarif and former Golkar leader Akbar Tanjung.

PMB chairman Imam Addaruqudni said that the new party satisfied all of the requirements to participate in the 2009 general election. From the organizational perspective, Imam said, the PMB already had representatives in 60 percent of Yogyakarta province, 50 percent at the regency level and 25 percent at the district level.

Imam further said that the new party would shun the existing corrupt pattern of politics. "We will deviate as we don't want to become involved in this corrupt system," he said.

PMB secretary-general Ahmad Rofiq said that the PMB was hoping to get 30 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2009 elections. He said this was based on the assumption that in the last general election (in 2004), around 9 percent of Muhammadiyah members were actively involved. "We are just targeting 50 percent of the 9 percent of Muhammadiyah members who participated in the elections," he said.

Ahmad Syafii, who gave a speech during the ceremony, said that the birth of the PMD did not signal a split in Muhammadiyah. "There's no split, but there will be fierce competition," he said. "They will have to work hard. It's no longer enough to claim they have the grass roots, they will have to prove it through hard work," Syafii stressed.

The new party, he said, would be brave enough to counter the existing scheme. It the new party followed the existing pattern, there would be no change, adding that the new party had to remain aloof from corruption.

"This nation is now led by thieves," Syafii said. Since Indonesia's independence, he said, defense of the people by the government had been nothing more than rhetoric. "I hope the appearance of a new party will be improve this." "We are optimistic about the target of getting 30 seats in the House in the next elections," he added.

Meanwhile, Akbar said that he had attended the ceremony because he had been invited. When asked whether he would use the new party as a political vehicle in the next elections, Akbar said that he had not discussed this. "I came here because I was invited. I gave a speech at a meeting (of the PMD's representatives) in Jakarta recently. But we haven't talked about whether I will use the party as a political vehicle," he said.

At least 50 trishaw drivers received a windfall when they were hired at Rp 60,000 (US$6.60) each to deck out their vehicles in PMB attributes and take part in a convoy. "It's great... I got Rp 60,000 for working just half a day," said Poniman, one of the trishaw drivers, who normally works along Jl. Malioboro in Yogyakarta.