Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The People's Democratic Defense, the fringe nationalist group that blamed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's re-election campaign for allegedly misappropriating funds from the Bank Century bailout, on Wednesday threatened to overthrow the government.

"What is our reason to keep the current government?" said Mustar Bonaventura, the leader of the group known as Bendera. "If the finance minister [Sri Mulyani Indrawati] and Vice President Boediono knew about the bailout, it is impossible that the president didn't know about the matter. We are warning Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. If he fails to resolve the Century scandal, then he must resign."

The group called on the president to resolve the Century case immediately or to resign from his position, threatening to topple him if he failed to heed their warning.

Bendera earlier claimed to have evidence that Rp 1.8 trillion ($190 million) of the Rp. 6.7 trillion bailout was channeled to the president's Democratic Party re-election campaign.

Speaking at a press conference at Bendera's headquarters in Central Jakarta, Mustar denounced the bailout, saying the money should have been used for social welfare projects.

The group, which earlier this year also called for an invasion of Malaysia over cultural slights, claims to be a non-partisan NGO. Their headquarters, however, are in a building formerly used to house the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Mustar said that occupying the former PDI-P premises was just a coincidence and did not imply any political affiliation.

He did admit, however, that some of the activists involved in Bendera had ties to PDI-P and other opposition groups, including the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) and the Freedom Bull National Party (PNBK). The party members were not part of the Bendera leadership, Mustar said.

PDI-P leaders have denied being behind the group. Other activists attending the press conference included a number of former student leaders from the Suharto era.

Ridwan Saidi, an activist prominent in the anti-Suharto movement, said the president had to accept command responsibility for the Century case and not allow Sri Mulyani and Boediono to be scapegoats. "We demand that SBY resign in January 2010, otherwise, we will force him to fall in April."

Asked how the group planned to unseat the government, Mustar said "public disappointment" would be sufficient to rekindle the kind of outrage that led to the fall of Suharto in 1998.