A POLICE abuse scandal sparked by a short phone video clip of a Chinese woman, stripped naked and forced to do "ear squats", is being called Malaysia's Abu Ghraib.
Malaysia is now in full damage control as it tries to contain diplomatic fallout with China, the most important emerging power in the region, shortly before the East Asia Summit.
The scandal comes after a series of recent allegations of harassment, including strip searches, of young Chinese women in Malaysia by police and immigration officials.
It also adds weight to claims that Chinese are being targeted and profiled.
The one-minute, 11-second clip starts with a female police officer ordering a naked Chinese woman, possibly in her 20s, to do the squats while holding her ears. The footage, taken on a mobile phone, appears to have been shot through a window without either woman's knowledge.
Lim Kit Siang, leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party, called it Malaysia's Abu Ghraib, a reference to the humiliating abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a US military prison near Baghdad.
A DAP politician, Teresa Kok, played the video clip in parliament on Friday to politicians and the media. "Is it standard practice for police to ask detainees to strip naked and to do ear squats?" Ms Kok asked afterwards.
So far no one has been charged over the videoed detention or earlier incidents.
Mr Lim said that the Malaysian public were entitled to know why the police as a whole "seem so indifferent and detached in a police scandal which had rocked the country and has such far-reaching consequences to the country's tourism, trade, economy as well as the country's international standing, particular the Malaysia-China relationship".
The Malaysian Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi, called a press conference on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta on Saturday to demand an immediate investigation, and "no cover-up", Bernama, Malaysia's national news agency, reported.
The scandal comes two weeks before the East Asia Summit, a Malaysian diplomatic initiative that will bring the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations together with China, Japan, India, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand.
China, as the emerging economic superpower, is the most important member of the trade-focused forum.
Photos from the clip appeared first in Malaysia's Chinese-language China Press; then the independent web portal Malaysiakini put an edited clip online. Even the Government-controlled New Straits Times has made it page one news.
The Deputy Premier, Najib Abdul Razak, has also promised those responsible will not be protected. "It should not have happened. It has dealt a severe blow to our country's image," he told reporters, but denied it would have an impact on the summit.
The Home Minister, Azmi Khalid, had announced he would fly to Beijing this week to make an apology to Chinese officials.
"We will apologise where we are wrong, definitely. There's nothing wrong to admit if there are mistakes," he said in Kuala Lumpur. "Profiling Chinese women especially those below 35 as being involving in vice should not have happened."
The trip, however, has been postponed until December 20, Malaysia's Star newspaper reported, after Mr Azmi's Chinese counterpart requested the delay as he had some other issues to settle first.
source : www.smh.com.au
