COMMENT The incarceration of the six leaders of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) under the Emergency Ordinance, yet another detention-without-trial law in Malaysia, and the attempt by the ruling BN government to justify this using the age-old "communist bogey", has exposed its bankruptcy of ideas.

In replaying the old gramophone, the ruling coalition has unwittingly laid bare its demonisation of socialists since the early days of Independence, when socialists were the main threat to its hold on political power...