http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=171418

Kit Siang And Teresa Prepared To Face Any Consequences
December 16, 2005 17:06 PM

PENANG, Dec 16 (Bernama) -- Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang
and Seputih Member of Parliament Teresa Kok are prepared for any
consequences if they are referred to the Parliamentary Committee of
Privileges over the nude squats video clip controversy.

Lim said both of them were prepared for any punishment whether it was
suspension or expulsion from Parliament.

He also challenged the Senate to give approval for him and Kok to appear
next week before it to give a point-by-point reply to the "irresponsible"
and "baseless" charges made by several Senators over the issue.

"As these Senators have also demanded that Teresa and I apologise to
Parliament for having exposed the matter, I challenge them to let us state
our case before them next week," he told a press conference here Friday.

Lim, who is also the MP for Ipoh Timur, added that the Senators should have
the courage and the conviction to move a motion in the Senate on Monday
inviting both him and Kok to appear to face them and reply to their
allegations.

He was responding to increasing demands by the Senators for him and Kok to
be referred to the committee and to apologise to all Malaysians in
Parliament for publicising the video clip in Parliament, which according to
them "had tarnished the image of the country".

The video clip showed a naked woman, originally alleged to be a Chinese
citizen being forced to do ear squats in a police lockup. The incident
caused unnecessary tensions between Malaysia and China over alleged
profiling of Chinese nationals by Malaysian enforcement authorities.

An independent commission of inquiry ordered by Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi which is in the process of investigating the incident
determined the woman involved to be a local Malay who had been detained for
drug abuse.

A number of Senators at the current Senate sitting want the duo to be
charged for showing "pornographic material" in public and bringing disrepute
to Parliament and the country .-- BERNAMA
____

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/?p=254#more-254

Challenge to Senate - Let Teresa and LKS appear to rebut accusing Senators
Time & Date: December 16, 2005 @ 12: 27.30

The Senators who attacked DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok and me over the
police naked ear-squat videoclip scandal are a shame and disgrace to
Parliament and the nation, as apart from making baseless allegations against
us in the past two days, they do not have a word to say about the indignity,
humiliation and human rights violations suffered by the Malay woman victim
or the urgent need for radical police reform to end the pattern of abuse and
human rights violations of detainees in police custody.

All these Senators seem to think that so long as the victim is not a Chinese
national, it is all right for a Malay woman or any local Malaysian to be
subjected to the humiliation and indignity of being stripped naked and
forced to do 10 ear-squats, regardless of her suspected offence, once in
police custody.

Lance Corporal Wan Zawati alias Zalina Wan Ismail, the policewoman in the
videoclip, told the Dzaiddin Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday that she
forced all female detainees at the Petaling Jaya police lockup to do squats
in the nude, as disciplinary action could be taken against her if any
contraband items were later found in the lock-up occupied by the detainees.

Why is there no outrage, shock or even objection from anyone of these
Senators at such blatant and unacceptable abuse of the human rights of woman
detainees, regardless of race, nationality or gender?

Assurances by senior police officers, whether Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm
Mohd Hazam Abdul Halim or the Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri
Musa Hassan that "naked ear-squats" are confined to people caught for
serious crimes and drug-related offences do not wash when the police
personnel at the lock-up level apply it summarily to all detainees.

Are these Senators aware such police "naked ear-squat" humiliation for all
woman detainees had been condemned by Suhakam and the Royal Police
Commission of Inquiry? Suhakam in its 2001 Report on its Inquiry into the
Kesas Highway gathering on November 5, 2000 condemned the "naked ear-squats"
forced on reformasi supporter, Norazimah Mohd Nor and recommended the end of
such procedure.

The Royal Police Commission had also found indiscriminately compelling
unnecessary, punitive and humiliating "strip searches" like the "naked
ear-squats" procedure an infringement of human rights.

Why none of these Senators have expressed shock or dismay that the Police
has not done anything to implement the recommendations of the Royal Police
Commission for proper standard guidelines on strip and intimate searches
consonant with a modern human rights regimes - wasting more than six months,
or more than 18 months if this matter had been the subject of the earlier
Interim Report of the Royal Police Commission?

If the Senators who are now condemning Teresa have one per cent of her sense
of national pride, commitment to uphold the dignity of woman and respect for
human rights, the Senate would be a more exciting and useful legislative
chamber and Malaysia a better country.

In bringing to the fore the PJ police naked earsquat videoclip, which had
been making the MMS rounds for the previous six months, Teresa had done a
great national service as regardless of the nationality of the woman victim,
the establishment of the independent commission of inquiry has gone a long
way to assure the Chinese Government and people - who had been upset about
the maltreatment of Chinese nationals - that the government is serious about
ending such human rights abuses by the police.

The national and international outrage over the PJ police videoclip is not
just over an isolated case, but because it represented the tip of an iceberg
of a pattern of police abuse and human rights violation of detainees in
police custody.

It is most shocking that none of the Senators who are demanding action to be
taken against Teresa and me are concerned or seemed to understand the larger
issue at stake.

There is increasing demand that Teresa and I be referreed to the
Parliamentary Committee of Privileges for punishment, as reflected in Berita
Harian's report today headlined: "Ahli Parlimen bebas rujuk Kit Siang,
Teresa", quoting the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri
Mohamed Nazri Aziz.

With 92% Barisan Nasional majority in Parliament, there is nothing the
Opposition can do to stop another "kangaroo court" proceeding like the
unjust six-month suspension of DAP MP for Bukit Glugor, Karpal Singh last
year. Teresa and I are prepared to face the consequences of the tyranny of a
92-per cent Barisan Nasional majority, which have the power to turn right
into wrong and declare black as white - whether to be suspended even longer
than Karpal and expelled from Parliament.

If there is a proper respect and understanding of justice, it is these
Senators who had been making baseless allegations against Teresa and me who
should be referred to the Committee of Privileges for their breach of
parliamentary privileges.

As these Senators have also challenged Teresa and me to apologise to
Parliament, I challenge the Senate to give approval for Teresa and me to
appear next week before the Senate to give point-by-point reply to the
irresponsible and baseless charges by several Senators over the police
squatgate scandal.

Will these Senators who wanted to be media "heroes" or "heroines" have the
courage and the conviction to move a motion in the Senate on Monday inviting
both Teresa and me to appear to face them and reply to their allegations,
including whatever new ones they want to make, so that they will not be seen
as mere cowards throwing stones from the security and protection of the
Senate?
____

Game for nude squat challenge, senators?
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/44615

Teresa Kok bagaikan pertikai kredibiliti polis
http://teresakok.blogsome.com/2005/12/16/teresa-kok-bagaikan-pertikai
-kredibiliti-polis/
____

http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=12324

DAP stands by Kok
Updated: 09:27PM Thu, 15 Dec 2005

PETALING JAYA: The DAP will vigorously defend its Seputeh MP Teresa Kok if
action is taken against her for exposing the nude ear squat video clip
scandal.

"We will launch nationwide and international campaigns to support Kok
individually. She is a symbol for the right of whistle-blowers to receive
protection and not be prosecuted by the authorities for exposing
wrongdoings," said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

Condemning the call by Umno Senator Datuk Syed Ali Alhabshee for action to
be taken against Kok for exposing the naked woman forced to do ear squat and
showing the video clip in Parliament, Lim said such an attitude is not only
short-sighted but also irresponsible.

"If the call is right, it only shows that the government views the real
culprits as not those who commit wrongdoings but those who expose such
wrongdoing.

"How can the the Senator claim that the action by Kok had shamed the woman
victim when it is the police that had shamed the women with such practices
that is not sanctioned by any existing provisions of law?

Lim reiterated that Kok did not do any wrong in exposing police's abusive
actions but was only performing her duty as a parliamentarian.

Bernama reported from Dewan Negara yesterday that several senators called
for action to be taken against Kok for causing a public uproar by showing a
video clip of a naked woman doing ear squats while in police custody.

Senator Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain challenged Kok to come forward to defend
the woman in the video if she really wanted to be a protector.

Senator Kassim Ismail accused Kok of having ulterior motive in exposing the
incident which he said could harm good relations between Malaysia and China.

Senator Datuk Dayang Mahani Tun Panglima Ahmad Raffae said Kok had played up
the issue and seemed to have questioned the police's credibility.

As a result, the police had been censured prematurely even though
ear-squatting in the nude was a normal procedure, especially in cases
involving drug abuse, she told reporters in Parliament lobby.

Senator Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff said she felt sad over what had happened and
hoped proper action would be taken against the person who recorded the woman
doing ear-squats in the lock-up.

"In this matter, the dignity of a person, irrespective of race or from where
she comes from, should be protected. The irresponsible act (of making the
recording) requires action to be taken," she said
____

DAP Would Not Only Vigorously Defend Teresa Kok But Is Prepared To Launch A
Nation-wide Campaign To Support Her And Other Whistleblowers Exposing Human
Rights Abuses And Wrongdoings.
http://www.dapmalaysia.org/english/2005/dec05/lge/lge261.htm

UMNO MPs Should Emulate Shahrizat
http://teresakok.blogsome.com/2005/12/15/umno-mps-should-emulate
-shahrizat/

Shahrizat Says Dignity, Integrity Of Women Detainees The Main Issue
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=171186
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