Jakarta, May 3 -- Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Muhaimin Iskandar affirmed that regional governments wield no authority to unilaterally formulate and implement rules that impose conditions on access to public social assistance.

Iskandar made the statement in response to a proposal from West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi, who plans to require husbands to undergo vasectomy or sterilization as a prerequisite for receiving provincial government assistance, including scholarships and social aid.

"They cannot make their own rules," Iskandar told the media at the Parliamentary Complex in Jakarta on Saturday.

He emphasized that the central government has never made participation in the national family planning movement, which pr...