Acts of violence are creating an image for the nation that is quite different from that presented in hospitality advertisements to woo foreign tourists.

The recent arson attack on the mayor's office Palopo, South Sulawesi, and raids on several other buildings, including the editorial offices of the Palopo Pos daily, on Sunday were only the latest in a string of attacks that nobody can predict will end.

Over the last few months, brutality has trumped the better angels of our nature across the archipelago, which stretches from Aceh at its westernmost tip to Papua in the east.

People were understandably shocked, given that the violence in Palopo came just after reports of soldiers who burned down a police station in Ogan Komering Ulu, South Sumatra; a mob that killed a police station commander in Simalungun, North Sumatra; the murder of a police officer in Aceh and the murder of suspects inside their cell in a prison in Yogyakarta.

The incident in Palopo was perhaps characteristic of the dynamic nature of the nation's democracy, particularly due to the high expectations of voters for their candidates to win in free elections. The central government in Jakarta is mulling having regents and mayors elected by regional legislative councils, as was done during the New Order, to prevent unnecessary electoral conflict, damage and fatalities.

In the interim, the government has been looking for scapegoats and scholars have been digging deep to find the root causes of the violence. While many explanations have been offered as to what triggered the incidents, we should take our cue from reports that said that angry people took matters into their own hands due to their distrust of the way the law has been implemented in the nation.

The public's disgust with law enforcement has not suddenly emerged, but has been built up over time as some people have enjoyed impunity, blatantly contradicting the basic principle of equality before the law.

How can the government encourage people to abide by the law if the young son of a top minister was freed after he was convicted of killing two people in an traffic accident while other less-well-connected defendants were thrown into prison. The public has also been left flabbergasted after prominent tycoons fled the nation just before bans on their overseas travel were imposed.

The notion of equality before the law has quite obviously been tossed out the window when some politicians remain at large after they were declared corruption suspects while those from other parties were immediately detained. Law enforcers may speak at length about their discretion. For the man or woman on the street, however, seeing is believing.

What can we as citizens say about a system that has sentenced people to six months' imprisonment for murder done in the name of religion?

There are always loopholes, faulty prosecutions and bad verdicts in any nation. However, there are far too many problems in Indonesia. There are the untouchables among us whom law enforcers cannot bring to justice because of their access to power.

Strict and fair law enforcement is all that the nation needs to maintain popular confidence in the legal system and to discourage people from taking the law into their hands. As long as the elite think they have the right to bend the law, the masses will follow suit.

Distrust in the law is a clear signal of a failed state. Perhaps we are headed that way, after all.