Indonesian governor bans female secretaries Rusly Habibie, the governor of Gorontalo province on northern Sulawesi island, claimed that many government office heads were involved in affairs. They treat them much better than their own wives. They bring them presents from official trips like perfumes or branded bags while their poor wives get nothing," he said. For these reasons, I ordered them to replace their female secretaries with male assistants or with old women who are no longer attractive. Mr Habibie is convinced that his subordinates will follow his instructions, though there will not be any punishment for those who fail to comply. This is a moral sanction. I'm pretty sure they will follow my order, and all of them will get a male secretary soon," he said, adding that there were about 50 senior officials in the province who had hired female secretaries. Last year, the Gorontalo administration demanded 3,200 male civil servants to transfer their monthly pay to their wives' bank accounts in order to limit the number of affairs.