Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia will ban police from forcing detainees to do squats in the nude, a common practice in lockups that recently sparked widespread complaints of police brutality, officials said on Tuesday.Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the government plans to adopt recommendations made by a panel of experts that investigated an infamous, secretly recorded video of a naked woman performing squats in front of a policewoman in a police station.The panel, in recommendations made public on Monday, called for a ban on strip-squats and the creation of a permanent body to investigate complaints against police.If police want to strip-search suspects, "there must be some procedures to follow, so we don't violate their rights," Abdullah told reporters.

Abdullah said it "will take time to reform the police ... but (the process) has started."The video of the woman, shot by a policeman with a camera phone, created an uproar late last year when top police brass admitted to the inquiry panel that strip searches and nude squats were standard practices in Malaysia, and used to expel objects hidden in body cavities.

Criminal law will be amended to reflect the ban on strip-squats, and it will include a new set of regulations for body searches, Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, Malaysia's minister for legal affairs, was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper on Tuesday.Currently there are so many different rules and regulations that "nobody knew what procedure to follow," he was quoted as saying. "We want to codify it all in a single legislation. Nude squats are no longer allowed, (even though) this has been a convention in the past."

THE naked woman, who was featured in a video clip performing ear squats before a policewoman, is expected to testify today before the Commission of Inquiry.
Dubbed the star witness of the inquiry, the identity of the fair-skinned woman has been the subject of speculations and discussions since Nov 24 when the clip was made public in Parliament.
Some guessed that she was a foreigner while others thought her to be a local woman.
Even her race had become a point of contention.
All these theories will, however, end when she makes her public appearance at the Sultan Abdul Samad Building today.

spoke my mind.

8:26 PM