Open wounds

摘要

After a bruising election campaign last November, many Malaysians had been looking forward to the period of healing and reconciliation that traditionally follows the period of fasting in Ramadan, which ended earlier this month. But the bonhomie did not last long. In a series of arrests that began on January 12th, four opposition leaders and a printer were charged with offences against the state. The round-up came soon after the prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, went on holiday to the Caribbean and Argentina, leaving his deputy and home minister, Abdullah Badawi, to explain what was going on.