Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia's report on the disgraceful increase in custodial deaths is shocking but not surprising given that this grave matter has not received the widespread condemnation that it should have generated.

It is worth noting that none of these guys have even been brought to court, no charges filed against them yet they have been arrested by the police based merely on suspicions (how?) and detained at the authorities' whim to languish in squalid conditions.

It simply amazing that while this practice continues at home, Malaysian newspaper analysts, political think tanks, etc. vent their spleen against the detention of minority Muslims in the US, Australia, etc. in similar manner.

This hypocrisy shows no sign of abating; for instance, newspapers here are quick to point out corporate malfeasance in US, but choose to remain mute on the likes of Celcom.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is first to jump the gun when condemning the Australian authorities' raid of Muslim homes, but he conveniently forgets that worse treatment has been meted out to local detainees.

The detain-first-evidence-later approach is not right here nor anywhere else. If one cannot stand up for the rights of minority in one's own backyard, then one has no business criticising the treatment of minorities elsewhere.