Legal Literacy - This article narrates an in-depth critique of the Merah Putih Village Cooperative Program (Kopdes). The story begins by describing how this program was touted as an ambitious promise to advance the village economy, a vision that on paper seems very noble and pro-people.

However, this narrative quickly dismantles the program's foundation, which turns out to be fragile. The author argues that this policy is not the result of democracy that listens to the people's voices, but rather a form of "instructional democracy" imposed from the center. This top-down process not only ignores local aspirations, but also risks creating conflicts and overlaps with village institutions such as BUMDes that already exist.

The culmination of the criticism in this article lies in the spotlight on the "legal trap" that haunts village officials. This narrative describes how the threat of imprisonment is unfairly used as a tool to ensure compliance, a practice that deviates from the principle of criminal law as a last resort (ultimum remedium). In the end, this article presents a firm conclusion that the policy design errors by the center are entirely passed on to the implementers in the village, turning good intentions into a potential criminalization.