Malaysia Ramps Up Harassment of Government Critics, Rights Groups Say

BANGKOK - Rights groups say Malaysian authorities are ramping up the use of criminal investigations into journalists, protesters and opposition lawmakers to harass the government’s critics, shrinking the space for free speech and a free press in the Southeast Asian country.

“Basic freedoms have come increasingly under attack since Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s government came to power last year through backdoor maneuvering, and this latest wave of investigations and harassment clearly aims to silence political opponents and all forms of dissent,” Carlos Zarate, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, said in a statement put out this week by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, a network of lawmakers from across the region. Muhyiddin rose to the prime minister’s post early last year without an election after he and other lawmakers abandoned the ruling coalition to form a new bloc of parties with a slim majority in Parliament. With the requisite consent of the country’s constitutional monarch, Al-Sultan Abdullah, he instituted a state of emergency in January that suspended Parliament and allowed him to rule by decree. Muhyiddin said he needed the emergency powers to combat the pandemic. Analysts say it is more likely a bid to postpone his own coalition’s collapse at the hands of disaffected partners by avoiding a no-confidence vote. Rights groups in turn say the latest wave of investigations into government critics stems at least in part from Muhyiddin’s mounting anxiety about his political survival.