Who is she? That was the burning question when the nude ear squats video-clip was exposed last month. Certain quarters, including the media , believed that she was a Chinese national and that was primarily a superficial deduction.

But now, the victim has been identified as a local Malay woman and this has ignited even more questions.

Why didn't the police disclose her identity earlier? Was Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar and Home Minister Azmi Khalid aware of who she really was?

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said both he and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had thought that the woman was a Chinese national as well.

There was also an interesting speculation that the woman's identity was withheld because of the Dec 6 by-election in Pengkalan Pasir, Kelantan. But there have been no reaction from the authorities on this. [see chart]

In a news report today, Noh claimed that he was in the dark over the woman's identity in responding to Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang's assertion that the deputy minister had concealed her identity.

'Tell all' press conference put off

Last Friday, the Malay Mail front-paged a report that Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid was expected to answer all questions pertaining to the case at a press conference on the same day.

It quoted the minister's press secretary Tajuddin Saman as saying that Azmi would reveal all, including when the top brass in the government were informed of her true identity.

However, the press conference was mysteriously called off. According to a ministry source, this was because Azmi, who recently returned from a fence-mending mission to China, had a fever.

He denied that it had anything to do with pressure from the top.

The source also claimed that Tajuddin was misquoted.

"The press conference was to explain the objective of Azmi's visit to China and not to reveal all," he said. "The minister's visit to China was not because of the video-clip."

The prime minister had instructed Azmi to go on the mission following a spate of police abuse reports against Chinese nationals. This was even before the clip was exposed.

Over the weekend, a Chinese daily reported that Azmi would hold a press conference today but Tajuddin, when contacted, said it had been postponed - again.

Diversion

Meanwhile, DAP parliamentarian Teresa Kok, the whistleblower, claims that she is being attacked by Barisan Nasional leaders and Malay newspapers in an attempt to divert attention from the fact that a Muslim woman had been humiliated by the police.

The clip, exposed by Kok on Nov 24, showed a woman being forced to do ear squats in the nude at the Petaling Jaya police headquarters.

This had created widespread outrage and the prime minister called for the formation of an independent commission to probe the matter.

Last Tuesday, the commission, during its public hearing, confirmed that the woman was a local arrested in connection with a drug case.

Since then, Kok and Lim have been coming under fire from Umno politicians for 'deliberately' tarnishing the image of the country and its police force.

It is now clear that the police knew of woman's identity long before the scandal broke.

On Dec 6, Noh told Parliament that Selangor police chief Yahaya Udin had been told about the video clip and investigations had begun even before Kok had exposed it.

During his testimony before the commission, lance corporal Mohd Suhaimi Nordin from the Petaling Jaya police headquarters said he was informed of the woman's identity in June - three months before Kok showed the clip to an outrage audience in Parliament.

But when Mohd Suhaimi told his superior soon after the clip was made public to 'correct' media reports that the victim was a Chinese national, no action was taken.

A bigger scandal?

These contradictions must be addressed and the onus is on the prime minister, remarked an observer, who declined to be named.

Abdullah, who is also internal security minister, owed the public an explanation, he added.

"If the government had in fact concealed the information due to the by-election, that would be a bigger scandal than the ear squats clip itself," he said.

However, the premier today reportedly said that if the police had revealed the victim's identity, the public would not have believed them.