Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang wants permission to appear in the Dewan Negara next week with DAP parliamentarian Teresa Kok.

They want to provide 'point-by-point replies to the irresponsible and baseless charges by several senators'.

Over the past two days, the pair have been lashed by the senators over the nude ear squats scandal, exposed by Kok last month.

The parliamentarian had shown a video-clip, recorded using a mobile phone, of a woman being forced to do the squats at the Petaling Jaya police headquarters to her peers and the media.

However, when is was discovered that the victim was a local Malay and not a Chinese national as speculated earlier, some Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders began to crack their whips.

Among others, Lim and Kok were accused of deliberately attempting to discredit the country and its police force as well as seeking cheap publicity.

Wrong tree, senators

According to the opposition leader, the senators are barking up the wrong tree.

"Apart from making baseless allegations against us, they do not have a word to say about the indignity suffered by the victim or the urgent need for radical police reform," he said in a statement.

"All these senators seem to think that so long as the victim is not a Chinese national, it is alright for a Malay woman or any Malaysian to be subjected to such humiliation and indignity," he added.

The clip sparked a huge outcry, with even the nation's top leaders condemning the police, which only days before had been accused of abuse by several Chinese nationals , all of whom women.

It was earlier speculated that the woman in the clip could also be a Chinese national but on Tuesday, an independent commission formed to probe the incident, confirmed that she was a local detained during a drug bust.

Not racial

In a related development, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said the incident was not a racial issue.

He said Malaysia, in realising this from the beginning, had expressed its concern over the matter, which became a hot issue.

He said in the initial stage, both he and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi thought that the woman detainee was a Chinese national until her identity was revealed recently.

"Although the detainee is a Malaysian citizen, the government still feels that whatever that can be regarded as insulting a detainee, is not appropriate, unless it is guided by laws and regulations," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

He said this in response to a question from reporters whether the issue raised by DAP had a racial motive.

Najib said in principle, he did not regard the issue as racial as any individual, irrespective of race and religion, had the right for protection based on human rights.

"The BN government has never ruled on the basis of race. I do not know if other parties have such intentions," he added.

Isolated case

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the nude-squats controversy is an isolated case and does not reflect Malaysia as a country which truly welcomes foreign visitors.

"And I think that any incident that happens, it is isolated and something that is not welcomed. In the recent (nude ear squat) case, the person involved is not Malaysian of Chinese origin, the person happens to be Malay," he said.

Malaysia was not in the habit of mistreating its visitors, stressing that it treated foreigners no matter where they come from with courtesy and full understanding.