The Necessity of Restorative Justice on Juvenile Delinquency in Indonesia, Lessons Learned from the Raju and AAL Cases

Since the Netherlands introduced and implemented modern law in Indonesia (1918), Indonesian people have turned to modern law as a tool for conflict resolution. Indonesian people generally tend to resolve conflicts with musyawarah mufakat (deliberation/consensus). It is Indonesia's typical conflict resolution mechanism. The court, for Indonesian people, is last resort that should be conducted only if musyawarah mufakat fails to mediate the conflict. The implementation of modern law (the court system) usually creates social problems. Juvenile delinquency law enforcement is one issue that so far has increased societal tension. Recent cases attracting widespread concern are the Raju and AAL cases. Muhammad ‘Raju’ Azwar was possibly less than eight-year-olda boy when the court decided to detain him for assault as a result of a fight with a schoolmate. The societal opinion was that the detention was overzealous and extreme. Another case that inflames societal emotions i the ‘sandal case’ of AAL. AAL was a 15-year-old boy accused of stealing sandals belonging to a policeman. In the sense of modern law, a crime is a crime, laws should be enforced. However, most Indonesian people believe that the cases mentioned above are too insignificant to be tried in court, which can negatively impact the children's futures. Other methods exist to settle such petty crimes. In Indonesia, we call such methods musyawarah mufakat, referred to in other countries as restorative justice.