Noh Omar's latest attempt in Parliament to deflect attention from police abuse of detainees is pedantically pathetic.

One wonders why Pak Lah's ministers are misbehaving on taxpayers' time when yet another inquiry has already been instituted over the nude 'ear-squats' incident.

It does not matter who has blown the whistle. The fact remains that DAP, by making the matter more public, has raised renewed public consternation over continued abuses of detainees despite the completion of the Royal Police Commission report. It was quite unfortunate that MCA's Michael Chong's attempt to raise the matter with the police did not get much coverage, possibly due to a perkara biasa (normal issue) attitude among police personnel.

DAP's re-exposure of the matter has compelled the prime minister to sit up and take some notice that things may have really gotten out of hand. We certainly hope that matters should not now slide into oblivion again after yet another inquiry.

It is an untenable accusation that DAP and Malaysians who have expressed concern over the incident are deemed by some BN politicians as jeopardising bilateral relations between China and Malaysia. There have been previous reports of Chinese nationals themselves alleging mistreatment by the police. Many Chinese nationals have also lodged complaints in the Fujian province over police mistreatment.

Noh Omar and the several BN parliamentarians should accept the fact that violence and corruption is endemic in the police force. Shahrir Samad is right. Let's just face that fact and sort matters for the better.