special interview Can ear-squats dislodge foreign objects from the vagina and rectum? This has been the burning question in town since a medical expert testified at an independent commission's hearing on a controversial video-clip.

Dr Zainab Shamsuddin, an obstetrics and gynaecologist from Hospital Kuala Lumpur, told the commission last week that squatting was an effective and quick method to remove such items from the cavities.

She also disclosed that in theory, when a person performs ear squats (squatting and standing repeatedly while holding the ears), it will have the contrary result.

The commission was formed to probe the clip, recorded using a mobile phone, which depicted a woman doing ear squats in the nude upon the instruction of a policewoman at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters.

In his closing statement to the commission, Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim cited Zainab's testimony as one of the reasons to describe the squats as 'justifiable'.

"It (her testimony) revealed that the act of squatting is capable of retrieving any foreign objects hidden inside the vagina or anus," said Suhaimi, who is also the commission's facilitator.

However, the Bar Council later dismissed this as an offensive practice and queried why the commission had only taken into consideration the views of only one doctor.

Undignified but cheap

Hence, malaysiakini decided to heed this request and spoke to two obstetrics and gynaecology experts to get their views on the matter.

In a nutshell, both experts University Malaya's Dr Eugene WK Leong and University Kebangsaan Malaysia's Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj agreed on the possibility of squatting dislodging foreign objects from the cavities.

However, this depends on the size of the object and the depth of its insertion. Small objects will not be dislodged.

Leong said asking a detainee to do ear-squats might not be dignified but was probably the "most cost-effective" way to dislodge foreign objects.

"Well, it's the cheapest although it may not be the most dignified (method). But if you have to quickly scan lets say 100 detainees. You are short of time. I don't know if anybody would have a better idea.

"Of course, we don't have to do certain things which might embarrass them," he added.

Harlina, on the other hand, said that more must be done if a detainee is suspected of retaining foreign objects in her cavities.

Even if she is asked to do ear-squats, it does not mean that the object will come out automatically, she added.

"I feel that if somebody really suspects that a detainee has something that is retained in one of the body cavities, namely the vagina, ear-squats would not be enough," she said.

Click on the highlighted (blue) names of the expert to read their full interviews.

Q & A with Dr Eugene WK Leong

Q & A with Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj