Johannes Nugroho – Furor has broken loose in Senayan over plans to build a Rp 1.13 trillion ($130 million) legislative office tower. Across town, in a little-known district of Bekasi, a local scandal stunned the public as 32-year-old Muhamad Umar was found to have somehow legally and yet unknowingly married a male masquerading as a woman.

The two events, newsworthy as they are, appear unrelated. However, on a deeper level, both are an incisive testament to the degree to which Indonesia practices democracy and upholds human rights.

The new House office block could not have come at a worse time with Indonesians facing price hikes for basic commodities, social unrest and high unemployment. While most citizens have to make do with meager incomes and the most basic facilities, it is indeed insensitive for lawmakers to propose building their own luxury tower.

If nothing else, the project has confirmed that while lawmakers are ardent defenders of their own privileges and perks, they appear inept at defending the interests of the people who elected them. The public dismay at this has prompted a chain reaction among lawmakers, many of whom are making a U-turn after previously approving the project.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie, while failing to see why the project lacks merit, is right in pointing out that most lawmakers did in fact support it initially. It seems a sudden and newfound empathy with the disenfranchised public has turned it all around.

It's not difficult to imagine our politicians as anything more than a group of infantile individuals of no integrity who are focused on feathering their own nests. As such, they are poor guardians of the democratic ideals they are supposed to uphold.

The public scandal involving Muhammad Umar and his bride, Rahmat Sulistyo, also known as Fransiska Annastasya Oktaviany, ridiculous as it is, has also unearthed some disturbing facts about our society.

First, for a male to have successful registered his marriage under a female pseudonym is simply mind-boggling. The only way for Rahmat to legally pass as Fransiska was through the use of false state papers, undoubtedly legalized by bribed officials. It was also revealed that a medical clinic report certifying Rahmat to be female had been issued, no doubt by another feat of bribery. And then there's the elderly couple paid to parade as Fransiska's parents.

The mentality of corruption appears to be firmly embedded in the Indonesian psyche. Such behavior, once the domain of high-level officials in Suharto's days, has now, in a tragic "As Above, So Below" parody, taken root in the everyday life of the country's citizens.

Caught up in the astonishing daring behind the scandal, people have forgotten that the methods used to expose Fransiska as Rahmat constituted a serious breach of human rights. It was reported that, reminiscent of the mob brutality against the Ahmadis, local residents stripped the offender naked in public against his will.

To add insult to injury, the police, the supposed guardians of the law, appeared to have found this act acceptable, again reminiscent of how police officers stood by while hard-line Muslims physically abused participants at a gender and sexuality conference in Surabaya a while back.

So it is evident that the ignorant many among our citizens – including the police – – desperately need to learn the basics of human rights. The law simply cannot bend its knees before mob rule.

Meanwhile, Umar, the deceived husband, is being portrayed as the victim and is now doing a good job of crying foul.

However, considering he lived in apparent wedded bliss until the neighbors started banging on the front door and public humiliating his wife, his decision to end the marriage appears little more than "face saving" and a definite bow to the self-righteousness of the mob. And, having lived with Fransiska for six months, it's difficult to believe Umar didn't notice something was up, so to speak.

The saga over the House office block, which probably has more to do with prestige and kickbacks than necessity, along with Fransiska's tale, border on the ridiculous. Such things can only happen here and we might as well have a good laugh at ourselves. But beneath the laughter, we also know there are serious issues to be resolved.

The democratic ideals of the Reformasi era seem to have been lost somewhere along the line. While our rulers squabble over the nation's riches, mobs rule our streets unhindered. Time to stop laughing.

[Johannes Nugroho is a writer based in Surabaya.]