Men more corrupt than women: Megawati

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 02/10/2012 5:56 PM


Family gathering: Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri (center) talks with her daughter Puan Maharani (left) while Megawati’s husband Taufik Kiemas looks somewhere else. Puan is the chairwoman of PDI-P faction at the House of Representatives while Taufik is the People’s Consultative Assembly Speaker. (Antara/Fanny Octavianus)

Megawati Soekarnoputri, Indonesia's first woman president and chief patron of the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), claims that men have more of a tendency to engage in corrupt activities than women.

"This is based on a survey on the United States. As proof, corrupt men are great in number,” she said during a discussion in Jakarta on Friday as quoted by tempo.co.

Megawati, who is the daughter of first president Sukarno, said she was bewildered by the fact that corrupt people tended to overlook the huge impact that corruption could have on society, at the same reminding PDI-P members not to engage in corrupt practices.

“Male party members, please remember your wives and children; the women perhaps remember their child,” Megawati said. “Don’t laugh, this is true. Maybe it’s just human instinct: men are the ones who seek [money] while women are the ones who save it.”

Despite Megawati’s claims, however, the KPK recently named two women suspects in high-profile corruption cases: Angelina Sondakh, a former beauty queen who is currently the Democratic Party’s secretary-general, and Miranda Goeltom, a former Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor whose bribery scandal has implicated businesswoman Nunun Nurbaeti.

In the last five months, the KPK has also sentenced two women to prison terms -- Mindo Rosalina “Rosa” Manulang and Dharnawati -- after the two were found guilty of bribing government officials in their respective corruption cases. (sat)