Jakarta – Recent graft scandals implicating women have challenged the notion that women are less corrupt than men, but women's role in corruption eradication remains important, activists at a seminar say.

Two hundred people, most of them women, gathered to discuss women's role in corruption eradication in a seminar hosted by the Women's Empowerment Foundation and Wadah Titian Harapan Foundation recently.

The seminar featured four speakers: Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Bibit Samad Rianto, Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo, Transparency International Indonesia secretary-general Teten Masduki and Women's Empowerment Foundation official and University of Indonesia lecturer Ani Widyani Soetjipto.

The speakers emphasized the important role of women in creating a corruption-free society. Ani said women could have both positive and negative influences in the struggle to eradicate corruption.

More men perpetrate acts of corruption, leading to assumptions that women are less likely to be corrupt and that their role as homemakers could be leveraged to produce a new generation of people of integrity who would abide by principles of good governance, Ani said.

"However, research shows no correlation between the increasing participation of women and a reduction in corruption," she said. "Corruption knows no gender distinction. Anyone can be corrupt."

Ani cited cases involving women, such as Artalyta Suryani, a businesswoman who was convicted in 2008 for bribing a prosecutor.

The case of Nunun Nurbaeti, the businesswoman allegedly involved in the distribution of traveler's checks to legislators during the 2004 election of Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor, was also an example of women implicated in graft cases.

The assumption was faulty, Ani said, because women had little public presence and little access to the power required to undertake acts of corruption. Now, more women are involved in public activities, meaning they have more opportunities to commit corruption.

Bibit identified three pillars in corruption prevention efforts: bureaucracy, business sector and society. He said prevention efforts such as anticorruption campaigns through bureaucracy reform and sustainable education on anticorruption from an early age was very important.

"Integrity can't be formed all at once. It should be formed from an early age in the home, school, neighborhood and workplace, which means the role of women as mothers, wives or coworkers is a dominant force," he said.

Teten said the struggle against corruption was one of many steps leading to good governance. "What should be addressed in the anticorruption movement is the impact of corruption itself," Teten said. Women remain the group most affected by corruption, he added.

Ani agreed, saying graft reduced budget allocations for welfare, such as education, healthcare and basic services, which were tied to the daily life of women who play different roles in private, public and community environments at once.

"Corruption also leads to negligence of human rights and the rise and spread of organized crime such as human trafficking, where almost all victims are women," Ani said. (rcf)