"SRI Party must pass verification and be able to free Mulyani from the Century Bank stigma," Ikrar Nusa Bhakti from the Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said here on Friday.
The SRI Party that has just registered itself with the ministry of justice to become a new party that would participate in the 2014 general elections.
Ikrar said the party`s existence is still weak and has not had a strong mass base.
He said the party`s founders consisting of a number of academics who are relatively still new in politics still have to prove that the party is able to meet the requirements to become a political party.
"Although SRI Party`s existence is still weak I see there is a difference between the party and other existing parties in that its founders are intellectuals, philosophers and observers that have never been active in politics from the beginning but have now been willing to commit themselves to improving the Indonesian nation," he said.
He said SRI Party is important but has to be able to convince the public that its presidential candidate has integrity. The party elite must be able to free Mulyani from the Century Bank stigma.
Asked about the rumor that Mulyani gets foreign support Ikrar said he did not see if Mulyani gets foreign support. "What I see is that Sri Mulyani is an Indonesian national who certainly has the desire to improve the condition of the Indonesian nation.
Mulyani was replaced as a finance ministry after she was assigned to be a managing director at the World Bank.
She was one of the figures involved in injecting up to Rp6.7 trillion to bail out ailing Century Bank in the midst of a world economic crisis in 2008.
The House of Representatives has considered the policy wrong and has asked the KPK to investigate possible corruption in it. The KPK has so far found no indications of corruption in the bailout decision.
(T.R024/H-YH/O001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
