When we discussed Formal Law—the law as written—and Applied Law—the
law as enforced—we could turn to academic articles.
But Your Law is personal, it is impacted by corruption, and the best we can
do is report a proxy index number for corruption in Indonesia from Transparency
International.
There is no collection of data beyond anecdotes, and even those can be hard to come
by. In some of the worst cases—in which the victims or their families are threatened—expatriates
usually choose to flee the country and Indonesians choose to remain silent.
We will, however include anecdotes as case histories in a later chapter Cases.
These points stand out in the previous discussions:
- Regardless of how laws are written or generally enforced, any individual case
can be sidetracked by corruption;
- Indonesia’s corruption ratings index is abysmal and not clearly improving;
- The actual significance of corruption is NOT an extra expense or nuisance—it
is the complete denial of justice under law;
- The Indonesian public is victimized and sickened by corruption, as is
most (but certainly not all, as we shall see) of the expatriate community.
- By all reports the “vast and extensive jungle of law” is growing worse
despite all the efforts of anti-corruption movements like the KPK.
For most readers now the most interesting question is “how does it affect
me?”
To answer that we need to explore the Institutions
controlling the Indonesian legal system, especially the Mafia Hukum,
or the Law Mafia.