Cheating civil servants told to pray

AN Indonesian governor has ordered all civil servants in a central province to attend mass prayer sessions and religious sermons in a bid to stop adultery.

It was the latest attempt by Rusli Habibie to encourage government employees in Gorontalo province — which is mainly Muslim, like most parts of the vast archipelago — to stay faithful.

He enacted a local law earlier this month requiring all government employees to pray together and attend half-hour sermons each Friday in the hope it would discourage them from cheating on their spouses.

“I have heard so many reports of married civil servants cheating.

“They have one girlfriend or boyfriend one day and another the next. They are not allowed to do this,” said Habibie.

“Their behaviour is destroying the image of the government.”

In March last year, Habibie gave instructions that male civil servants’ salaries be paid into their wives’ bank accounts to stop them spending cash on their mistresses. He said men with money were “unable to control themselves”.

In July, he banned male employees from having female secretaries, who, he said, often became the men’s mistresses and were given gifts of “perfume and branded bags” while their wives were neglected.

More than 90% of Indonesia’s 250 million people are Muslim.

Most practise a moderate form of Islam. — AFP