The infamous nude 'ear-squat' video clip has sparked strong public outcry in recent weeks. Today, a similar public wave of disappointment and anger was heard over an incident in which eleven elderly men were shaved bald by the police after they were caught playing a harmless game of mahjong.

Barisan Nasional backbencher club chairperson Shahrir Samad led the latest charge at the police for what has been described as "unnecessary and unbecoming" behaviour.

"It's something wrong with them (the police). They seem (to enjoy) inviting greater scrutiny (of their actions)," he said when contacted.

Shahrir said every time such an incident happened, the public get rattled as to what is the standard police procedure in dealing with people who are picked up.

"What are the guidelines that must be followed (in detaining someone)? Now, apparently they (the police) can do anything. They catch you and they can shave you bald, it's quite ridiculous. I don't know how these things could happen," he said.

Mahjong game

In Monday's incident, a group of elderly friends who were enjoying a game of mahjong ended up being shaven bald.

They were arrested during a police raid on a coffee shop where they were enjoying the game on the second day of Chinese New Year. They were picked up for being allegedly involved in illegal gambling and taken to the Kajang police headquarters.

Eight of the 11 men told a press conference yesterday that they were poorly treated. They claimed that while in the lock-up, police personnel shaved their heads after they were forced to strip to their underwear.

They also claimed that they were released at 6.30pm the next day.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang also deplored the high-handed police action.

"Is the police's high-handed action in shaving bald the 11 mostly senior citizens in Kajang to mark a 'new police respect' for human rights?" he said, referring to reports that 147 district police chiefs will attend a mandatory human rights training seminar.

He was disturbed by Kajang police chief Mohd Noor Hakim's statement that it was a normal lock-up procedure to shave a detainee's head and that the police will continue with the procedure.

"Will there be more police outrages utterly contemptuous and insensitive of human dignity and rights of Malaysians in the new police respect for human rights?" Lim asked in a statement.

17 police reports

Meanwhile, Police Watch and Human Rights Committee revealed that 12 detainees including two women have filed a civil suit against the Kajang district police chief, Inspector-General of Police and the government of Malaysia for shaving bald their heads while under detention in the Kajang police station last year.

The police watchdog's legal advisor P Uthayakumar claimed that the 12 were unlawfully arrested over a civil dispute.

"17 police reports have been lodged against the Kajang police by 14 individuals (over the incident). No action has been taken because the police ended up in investigating their own crime," he said in a statement.

He said the act of shaving bald a suspect's head amounts to a cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment especially of mere suspects who have not been found guilty by the court of law.

He said the 1953 Lock-Up Rule Section 9A which stipulated that 'every prisoner except of a Sikh accustomed to keeping his hair long on religious grounds, shall on admission have his hair cut close' was outdated.

"In last Monday's case, how much hair do people in their 50s and 60s have? This is unlawful use of discretionary powers," Uthayakumar added.