According to him, Indonesia already has adequate legal instruments, including laws, law enforcement agencies and specialized institutions such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and corruption crime courts. However, corruption continues to persist.
"I believe the problem is not the absence of legal norms or law enforcement institutions. What is lacking is ethical and moral awareness," Mahendra said here on Sunday.
He said his decades of experience overseeing legal affairs, during which he helped draft numerous laws and regulations, had led him to conclude that law enforcement alone is insufficient to eradicate corruption.
"I have helped draft hundreds of laws. I helped establish various institutions, expanded investigative powers, set up the KPK, and helped establish corruption courts. But why have we still failed to eradicate corruption? Instead, corruption has become even more widespread," he remarked.
He emphasized that moral awareness cannot be built solely through the Constitution or legislation, but must instead be grounded in ethical and religious values.
"I believe that the Constitution, laws, government regulations, or any other legal instruments we create are meaningless if the state is not built on an ethical foundation rooted in the religious values embraced by our society," Mahendra said.
Therefore, he believes ethics education should be instilled from an early age to produce a generation that respect the law not merely out of fear of punishment, but because of their conscience.
"Schools must provide strong ethics education so that future generations will uphold ethical values and obey the law not because they fear the police, prosecutors, or the KPK, but because they fear their own conscience," he said.
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Translator: Fianda, Kenzu
Editor: M Razi Rahman
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