The bureaucratic reform the country is undertaking is certainly more complicated and daunting than we may have thought, thanks in part to internal resistance, as the controversy centering on Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana has portrayed.

Pressure from the House of Representatives' lawmakers and the media for an investigation into allegations that Denny slapped a prison officer during a raid last Monday to uncover drug-trafficking practices inside the Pekanbaru Penitentiary in Riau has unfortunately obscured the main point of the operation. It is feared that the overexposure of this reported violence will shift the public's attention from the key issue of bureaucratic reform, including in the Law and Human Rights Ministry, which is far from being completed.

The damage has been done, perhaps prematurely as the probe into the case is still underway, forcing Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin to indefinitely suspend raids on jailhouses despite the fact that the shock therapy proved effective. We do not know the extent to which drug-trafficking rings operate behind bars or how many corrupt prison officers will help them take advantage of the temporary moratorium.

Since his appointment to the post, Denny has been quick to take bold measures to reform ministerial bureaucracy, including in the Directorate General of Correctional Institutions, where reports of corruption and drug trafficking involving prison wardens and officers are rampant.

At least eight wardens serving in penitentiaries across the country have been implicated in drug trafficking, including one in Pekanbaru who was arrested during a crackdown led by Denny.

Such moves have angered not only bureaucrats at the ministry, as evidenced by the public outrage displayed by the director general of penitentiaries, Sihabuddin, but also House lawmakers, who have resented Denny ever since the former anticorruption activist joined the Presidential Advisory Council in 2008.

The lawmakers reacted negatively when Denny proposed a suspension of remissions awarded to corruption and terrorism convicts last December, which directly affected several former lawmakers. Only two months later, he revealed suspicious night visits by the House's law commission member Muhammad Nasir of the Democratic Party to Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta. Nasir was once spotted meeting his brother, high-profile graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin, in the latter's cell outside visiting hours.

It looked as if the grudge against Denny had become personal when members of the House law commission expelled him from a hearing following an acrimonious debate over the remission moratorium in February.

While an investigation into Denny's conduct at Pekanbaru is necessary to uphold the law and to prevent the arguably noble efforts toward bureaucratic reform from justifying all and any means, the Law and Human Rights Ministry and other government institutions must not put on hold extraordinary measures to speed up the much-needed reform.

The very "un-business as usual" approach that Denny has adopted is precisely what the government needs to reform the country's stubborn bureaucracy, which has long been perceived as the stumbling block to development and, hence, the nation's endeavors to deliver welfare to all.

Many will resist reform, particularly those who financially benefit from the status quo, but that cannot act as an excuse to slow down the reform process, let alone to surrender it altogether.