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An Indonesian province has come up with what it hopes is one way of preventing its male civil servants from cheating on their wives ­— by putting their pay into their spouses’ pockets.

Under a new rule that takes effect next month, married officials in Gorontalo will have their monthly salaries paid into their wives’ bank accounts.

Newly elected governor Rusli Habibie believes this will stop the men from spending money on other women — as some wives have alleged — and also cut down arguments over household finances.

The new rule, administration spokesman Rudi Irawan told local media, came after many civil servants’ wives complained about not getting enough of an allowance from their husbands.

Rusli also said that making the men’s pay more transparent to their spouses would ensure that the latter would not over-spend.

“A wife can sometimes ask her husband to buy a new motorcycle, or a car, when a neighbor has just bought an expensive item,” he told television station TVone.

The new rule, however, will not apply to married women. Rudi said Gorontalo’s civil servants — more than a fifth of whom are married men — back the idea, with only a small minority opposing it.

One official, Saleh Yusuf, told BBC News it was no big deal. “All this time, it is my wife who has had access to my salary anyway,” he said.

“She has the ATM card.”

While the new ruling has raised chuckles in some quarters, it also reflects the unintended result of the increasing regional autonomy of Indonesia’s 400 regencies.

The country started giving the various regions more power to enact their own by-laws and policies about a decade ago, after the downfall of former president Suharto in 1998. The decentralization process was aimed at devolving control so that the local authorities could better see to their needs, but has occasionally resulted in regional governments passing odd regulations, like Gorontalo’s.

Legal expert Irman Putra Sidin said this was nothing to worry about. “By-laws often reflect local values and characteristics,” he told The Straits Times. “Those applied in Aceh may not work in other places in Indonesia.”

But critics say such autonomy sometimes affects the country’s politics and economy, as well as the rule of law. While regional by-laws are not supposed to contradict those enacted by the central government in Jakarta, the regional and national authorities have occasionally clashed over laws that involve more serious issues than salary payments.

In 2008, East Java’s Batu regency sparked controversy when it ordered masseuses to wear padlocks on their pants in a bid to prevent prostitution, prompting then minister of women’s affairs Meutia Hatta Swasono to slam the rule as “ridiculous.”

Conservative Aceh in the west has also drawn its share of criticism for its strict Islamic laws, which ban women from wearing tight pants and jeans, among other things.

But so far, Gorontalo’s new rule has not drawn any response from Jakarta. Observers say it could help “balance” the province’s “patriarchal culture.”

Irman, too, has no objection, saying: “The intention is good. But if anyone opposed it, I wouldn’t blame them either.”

He added: “There is no problem with any by-law as long as it does not face widespread resistance from those affected, does not breach human rights, and does not breach constitutional rights.”

Chances are, Gorontalo’s wives do not mind either.

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.