Indonesia is not the United States. And Jakarta is not Chicago. But it is difficult to resist the temptation of comparing today's Indonesia to early 20th-century America. That was when the law in the city of Chicago was in a state of total disarray, and paralysis set in whenever it dared touch one Al Capone.

The law in Indonesia today is in a similarly chaotic state. It becomes inert whenever it touches on the person of Sjamsul Nursalim.