Links between the state security apparatus and militia groups, such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), have long been alleged but remain unsubstantiated as no real proof has ever emerged. The most recent allegations emerged on Friday by way of leaked US embassy cables published by WikiLeaks.

Though claims like these are nothing new, the cables do shed light on new details of the cozy relationship between senior police officials and the FPI. The most worrying information to come out is that the FPI receives much of its funding from the police.

That might explain why the FPI is able to break the law with impunity. Although members of the group have been hauled before the courts, they have escaped with relatively light sentences, even for brutal crimes. Their actions have not only tarnished the image of the police force in general, but that of the nation as a whole.

Since the downfall of the New Order regime, the police force has taken great strides toward transforming itself into a professional law enforcement organization. Now independent from the armed forces, the police have embarked on a series of internal reforms that have led to the creation of a modern security unit.

Unfortunately, Indonesia also has a long history of creating and supporting militia organizations that are allowed to ride roughshod over the law. Many of these organizations have the tacit backing of either the military or the police, and their leaders often are on good terms with senior officials.

Whatever the rationale in the past might have been for creating and supporting these militia groups, the practice has no place in modern Indonesia.

The country has made great progress during the past decade on both the economic and social fronts, and the time has arrived for the security forces to cut their ties with any organization that deems itself to be above the law.

Unless every Indonesian respects the law and is held accountable under it, the country will not gain the respect it seeks from the international community. If organizations such as the FPI are allowed to act as judge and jury and brazenly destroy property and harm lives, the law will remain futile and the police ineffective.