The All Women's Action Society (Awam) welcomes Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's announcement that an independent inquiry will be set up to investigate the case of a woman forced to do squats in the nude in a police station. We hope that every effort will be made to ensure a just, thorough and transparent process.

However, Awam wishes to express its grave concern over the fact that this despicable event happened at all. It was only six months ago that the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police Force published its report, which the inspector-general of police himself had accepted as fair in its assessment of shortcomings within the Malaysian police force.

Among its much-lauded "10 strategic thrusts" were to make policing comply with prescribed laws and human rights obligations, and to raise awareness of women's and children's rights, neither of which was evident in the treatment of the woman in the MMS video. We note also that the royal commission had highlighted intimate searches, including ear-squats, as an issue of concern.

This latest incident must be viewed within the context of other reported police misconduct. Recently, the press has highlighted the degrading treatment that four Chinese women and a transsexual had suffered at the hands of the police. Earlier this year, the wife of fugitive Michael Soosai was alleged to have been abused and taunted with lewd remarks by the police. Norazimah Mohd Nor, an activist detained after a rally in 2000, claimed that she was forced to strip and do push-ups. All in all, these incidents point to a disturbing pattern of behaviour in the way detainees are treated by the police.

Little seems to have changed, despite reassurances by Mohd Bakri Omar in May that the royal commission recommendations were being implemented. Musa Hassan, the deputy inspector- general of police, has stated that the police will be going after the person who filmed the incident on a mobile phone. While the filming is in itself a gross violation of privacy, the inexplicable shift in focus seems to suggest that the police have failed to understand that they should be working to address their shortcomings instead of persecuting whistleblowers.

Awam hopes that public debate on this issue will not be hijacked by excuses as to the presumed involvement of the detainee concerned in "criminal activities", such as vice and drugs. Guilt or innocence is not the point. Everyone has a right to be treated with dignity, regardless of their sex, age, ethnicity and whatever prejudices society may hold against any particular group.

At the very least, these abuses are a breach of human rights and common decency. They are also likely to have an adverse impact on the effectiveness of the police force in the long term. The community must be able to trust enforcers of the law before it will offer its cooperation.

Without that trust, the legal process will become increasingly devalued in the eyes of the people. We fear that women who were subjected to domestic violence and sexual assault will be more hesitant in coming forward and making police reports, because they may believe that they will suffer further violation in doing so.

Awam calls upon the government and the police force to implement the recommendations of the royal commission immediately, in hope that this will be the last of such abuses.

The writer is the president of the All Women's Action Society (Awam).