The nature of mechanism for enforcing the ethics and honor of state administrators as a preventive measure for corrupt practices

The enforcement of ethics for state administrators is a fundamental preventive instrument in combating corruption. However, its effectiveness in Indonesia is hindered by a formalistic paradox: a gap between the abundance of ethical norms de jure and the weakness of their enforcement de facto. This research aims to analyze the nature of the ethics enforcement mechanism and to examine methods for building a functional ethics infrastructure. Employing a normative legal research method with a qualitative approach, this study examines primary and secondary legal materials through conceptual analysis and systematic interpretation, fortified by the Focus Theory of Normative Conduct. The findings indicate that the failure of ethics enforcement stems from a conflict between injunctive norms (regulations) and descriptive norms (bureaucratic habits), exacerbated by a closed enforcement paradigm and weak institutional independence. Although an institutional architecture is normatively in place, these implementation challenges prevent the existing mechanism from functioning optimally, leading to an empirically substantiated erosion of public trust. Therefore, this study concludes that a paradigm shift is necessary, from a formalistic approach toward the development of a functional ethics infrastructure. The study recommends policy reforms to strengthen the independence of oversight bodies and implementation reforms that integrate punitive approaches with virtue-based character building.