PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim expressed "deep concern" over the "new heights of police harassment" that he said led to the incident in Kuala Terengganu on Saturday in which two people suffered gunshot wounds.

"It was supposed to be a normal gathering organised by Bersih, of the sort that one can expect in the lead-up to the general elections," said Anwar.

Bersih is the non-governmental organisation concerned with ensuring the cleanliness and integrity of the electoral process in Malaysia. Guests speakers at the Bersih-organised gathering at Pantai Batu Buruk in Kuala Terengganu last Saturday night were Mohamed Sabu from PAS and Khalid Ibrahim of PKR.

Anwar said his understanding of events leading to the crowd disturbances at Batu Buruk prompted him to fault "some quarters who realised that the gathering would be a large one and so decided to exert pressure such that the police would move to stop the ceramah."

A crowd of 500 had gathered at the venue for the Bersih-organised ceramah when police intervened and ordered the crowd to disperse.

Disturbances ensued in which tear gas and water cannon were used and gunshots rang out. Two people were later treated for wounds consistent with the discharge of gunfire. The police said that one of them fired in self-defence on being attacked by a group of angry men.

Anwar said: "People will suspect that something manipulative is at work when permits for gatherings by bodies favoured by the powers-that-be are applied for and obtained with ease."

He said the use of water cannon and tear gas by the police in the Batu Buruk incident was evidence of "new heights in police harassment towards gatherings considered unfavourable to the government."

Anwar's advice to the opposition

Anwar cautioned that political power "does not flow out of the barrel of a gun."

"The discharge of gunshots in the incident suggested that police harassment has reached new heights. This is cause for grave concern.

"Public order and security are as much the effect of rational considerations by the enforcement authority as they are of public restraint and good behaviour under conditions of democratic governance," said Anwar.

He also had a word of caution for supporters of the opposition.

"Beware of the presence of agent provocateurs whose aim is to provoke you into responding in the way that would justify the premeditated repression of the authorities," he said.

"I know this exacts from you a level of awareness and restraint that surpasses the normal but we are living in a time where the authorities alternate between crude and subtle forms of repression.

"It is imperative that we be streetwise."