From Beautiful Theory to Rotten Reality: The Law in the Hands of the Mafia

We are taught that the law must be objective, that judges must adhere to the truth, and that justice must be upheld regardless of social status. But in the real world, the law is subject to money and power.

Mahfud MD once revealed how the law in Indonesia has become a transactional industry. The judicial mafia roams in all sectors: from the courts to the police, from the prosecutor's office to anti-corruption institutions. Judges who can be bought, prosecutors who can be "arranged", lawyers who are more like case brokers than fighters for justice, and police who make the law a commodity.

Every day we hear news about officials involved in corruption, but end up with light sentences or even being acquitted. Big cases involving political elites often disappear just like that, while ordinary people who steal to survive are severely punished.

Then what is the point of us studying legal theory, if in the field what applies is “whoever has the money, wins”? What is the point of the Faculty of Law producing graduates, if in the end they only have two choices: participate in the corrupt system or be eliminated for adhering to idealism?

The statement “You will understand later when you become practitioners” is not just an acknowledgment, but a form of justification for the decay of the system. As if we have to accept that in the legal world, integrity is only for the naive, while the smart are those who know how to manipulate the law for their own interests.

This is a form of reproduction of corruption from generation to generation. Students who are initially idealistic, after entering the world of practice, will find that the law does not work as they learned. They will face a dilemma: participate in the system and gain profits, or go against the current and risk losing everything. Unfortunately, most choose the former.

If becoming a practitioner means having to participate in fraud, then what is the use of legal education? Ideally, the Faculty of Law should produce people who improve the system, not just cadre for a new generation of legal mafia. However, if from the beginning the legal education system only prepares us to accept this dirty reality, then the Faculty of Law is nothing more than a factory producing legal bureaucrats for corporations and rulers.