Mahfud MD Launches Book Highlighting Current Political and Legal Landscape

A book banned under one regime can become a bestseller under another. Such is the story of ‘Politik Hukum di Indonesia’ by Professor Mahfud MD. During the New Order era, the manuscript, taken from Mahfud’s dissertation, was rejected by one publisher after another for a uniform reason: none dared to print it. Yet, the once-avoided book has become a mandatory text for law and politics students across the nation for nearly three decades in the post-Reformasi era. Now in its 13th printing, the book was relaunched at the University Club (UC) of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Sleman on Thursday. This latest edition is not merely a cosmetic update. Mahfud dissects the portrait of Indonesian law and politics over the 28-year journey of the Reformasi era (1998–2026). He stated that the 13th edition is a substantive revision that updates the entire analysis with the political and legal developments of that period. “This book tells the story of how our law has always been heavily determined by politics,” he said. Mahfud asserted that politics is not always detrimental to law; democratic politics will produce good legal products. He cited the highly democratic era of the 1950s, when ministers could be arrested without presidential interference. He also noted that from 1998 to 2009, favourable political conditions produced quality legal outcomes. Historically, the early Reformasi period was a golden moment for law enforcement, marked by constitutional overhauls, accelerated elections, the removal of non-elected representatives (such as the TNI faction) from the DPR, and the establishment of the Constitutional Court (MK) and massive anti-corruption bodies. “It was good until 2009. But starting in 2009, money politics began to emerge slowly. The open-list proportional representation system led people to buy [votes],” he noted. The situation has steadily declined since 2009, worsening from 2014 to the present. “The current trend is a decline, heading towards what is called orthodox law—law used for practical agility or the political interests of officials,” he asserted. Although not always negative, Mahfud warned that the current trend in law enforcement shows a worrying decline. He stressed that the key to fixing the law is to improve the political system to make it more democratic and representative, and to strengthen state institutions. He also reminded public officials to uphold justice, warning that power which ignores the law can collapse suddenly when it exceeds society’s tolerance, as seen at the end of the Old Order and New Order eras. Concluding with a philosophical analogy, Mahfud stated, “Our country is a state of law. Ideally, the law and constitution are the rails, while politics is the locomotive and its carriages. Therefore, the locomotive and its driver must not violate the rails, because if it goes off track, the consequences are fatal and a collision will occur.”