This study investigates the paradox of success in post-conflict Aceh, Indonesia, where social movements achieved a legislative mandate for the creation of the Aceh Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKRA) but subsequently faced institutional paralysis. Using a synthesized framework of political process theory and resource mobilization theory, and drawing on ten in-depth interviews and systematic document analysis, the study argues that the 2005 Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding created a transitional moment that enabled legal advocacy while simultaneously entrenching an elite collusion of interest hostile to its implementation. The findings reveal that, while civil society successfully mobilized moral and cultural resources to pass Qanun Aceh No. 17 of 2013, the movement was structurally constrained by resource scarcity and bureaucratic obstruction, rendering the KKRA an institutional orphan.