The government-sanctioned team tasked with selecting the next batch of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioners is encouraging more women to apply for the position before the June 24 deadline.

Team spokesperson Betti S. Alisjahbana said on Saturday that of 182 candidates who had registered with the team, only 11 were women.

The all-female selection team, she added, was hoping more women would apply, as the fight against corruption needed leaders from all backgrounds.

'€œCorruption is a very important issue faced by men and women equally,'€ she said during a press
conference.

The new KPK lineup, she argued, should reflect the country'€™s demography, which included a roughly equal number of the two sexes.

'€œIf few women apply, that means we are not making the most of half, or even more, of our population. The more women who join our cause, the better chance we have of fighting corruption,'€ she said.

According to the team'€™s latest data, the 11 women who have applied are mostly between the ages of 45 and 55.

Fifty-six percent have a Master'€™s or doctoral degree, and their backgrounds range from academia and activism to the civil service.

'€œEleven women is still not enough,'€ Betti concluded.

University of Indonesia (UI) political analyst Ani Soetjipto, meanwhile, said women should be encouraged to engage with corruption eradication.

'€œCorruption on a grand scale usually affects the domestic aspect of life, in which many women are involved. So it would make sense for there to be female commissioners,'€ Ani said.

She added that women were often thought of as the more caring gender and having female commissioners would send the message that the KPK cared about victims.

Meanwhile, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Emerson Yuntho said potential female candidates were reluctant to apply because of a lack of political support.

'€œI have been contacted by several women who said they wanted to apply, but they were worried because they didn'€™t have any political support,'€ he said.

Also on Saturday, the KPK announced it had arrested and detained two regional councilors and two administrative officials from Musi Banyuasin, South Sumatra, in a suspected bribery case relating to the revision of the regency'€™s 2015 draft budget.

KPK acting commissioner Johan Budi said the antigraft body'€™s investigators had arrested Musi Banyuasin councilors Bambang Karyanto and Adam Munandar, legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and
Gerindra Party, respectively.

They were arrested along with Musi Banyuasin Finance and Asset Management Agency head Syamsudin Fei and Development and Planning Board head Fasyar at Bambang'€™s residence in Palembang, South Sumatra.

The suspects were found with a bag filled with Rp 2.56 billion (US$192,163) in cash; KPK investigators have yet to determine where the money came from.

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