Police fired the first salvo yesterday, with Inspector-General Musa Hasan saying he would leave it to state police to decide if they wanted to ban political ceramahs in Perak state, where there is a hardening standoff between the Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional over which is the legitimate state government.
His comments were taken as a harbinger of harsher action to come, and were soundly denounced by both Pakatan leaders and civil society groups, alarmed by the recent wave of cloak-and-dagger intrigue in the local political scene. [read more]