PARLIAMENT A debate on airport security took a sexual twist in the Dewan Rakyat today when the subject of pat downs was raised.

Marcus Mojigoh (BN-Putatan) had asked why Malaysia did not procure machines to scan people, instead of having officers " raba-raba " (pat down) passengers.

Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, however, argued that such actions were necessary.

"Not all body scanners can detect, for example, ceramic explosives. So because we practise high security standards, it (pat downs) is necessary.

"But the raba-raba is not on private parts, it is just on regular outer parts (of the body)," he added.

Deputy speaker Mohd Ismail Said then tried to stop any further debate on the matter.

"If we talk about raba-raba we won't be done till night. In fact, the later it is in the night, the more we will talk about raba-raba ," he quipped.

Mojigoh ( photo ), however, ignored this and ridiculed Aziz's answer, saying: "Only in Malaysia can hands ' meraba ' explosives."

He was joined by Tian Chua (PKR-Batu), who said something was wrong with Malaysia if it had to rely on physical searches.

"I'm not afraid of being frisked [...] If you want to raba-raba 10 times to ensure that there's no bomb for security that's not a problem.

"But if the minister considers hands to be more effective, and that machines can't detect (bombs), there's something wrong with our country," he added.

He further quipped that if Malaysian hands were so effective, Malaysians should be employed to detect bombs worldwide.

The debate fizzled out after Aziz said he would raise the matter with Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), and moved on to another topic.

This same subject had been brought up in the Dewan almost a year ago by Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) who said he would not complain much if those frisking him during checks were female officers.