*** ----> Indonesian city orders staff to ‘pray or get a new job’ | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Indonesian city orders staff to ‘pray or get a new job’

Jakarta : An Indonesian city has ordered its top civil servants to visit their local mosque for dawn prayers or risk being sacked. Senior bureaucrats in Palembang, co-host of last month’s Asian Games, are now required to visit their local mosque at the crack of dawn -- and they’ve been warned that a smartphone app was in the works to sniff out the less-than-devout. The order, which may be a first for Indonesia, is aimed at helping bureaucrats better relate to residents’ concerns while the early wake-up call could also boost productivity, city spokesman Amiruddin Sandy said.  

“By praying together at dawn with regular people, we get a chance to hear from them directly,” he said, adding that common complaints ranged from water not running to broken street lights. Palembang’s new rule, which started Wednesday, applies to Muslim members of its 16,000-strong civil service although only 1,100 senior staff will risk a sacking if they skip dawn prayers.

The city’s mayor plans to do some spot checking to make sure officials were complying until the local government launches a smartphone app to keep track of attendance, Sandy said. “If we find an official disobeying the regulation we won’t immediately sack him. We will summon him first and ask why he didn’t go to the mosque,” he said. “If you’re doing your prayers well then, God willing, everything else will be good.” About 90 per cent of Indonesia’s 260 million people follow Islam.

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