ABSTRACT
The law has been a potent means by which the Malaysian government stifles dissent and maintains its power. The use of the law to intimidate and crush political opponents, the regression of the judiciary – as critics have charged – to a mere handmaiden of the political executive, and the various constitutional amendments which seemingly aggrandised the office of the prime minister vis-à-vis other sections of the state have generated popular disaffection with the government. The way the prosecutorial machinery was deployed by the executive to deal with former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was unceremoniously hauled to court on charges of corrupt practice and sodomy, confirmed widespread misgivings, locally and abroad, of the independence of the country’s legal and political system. The subsequent vociferous call for political and legal reform, which included restoration of judicial independence, respect for human rights, war against corruption and greater participatory democracy, indicated that the legal and political system had been put on trial.
