The waves of protests in Turkey have put Anwar Ibrahim and PAS leaders in a dilemma. On one hand, the brutal crackdown there resembles the very heavy-handedness of Umno, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring that “the social media is the worst menace to society”; on the other hand, Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) are perceived as a model of Islamic democracy.

PAS vice-president Husam Musa visited Istanbul just after he lost in GE13; Anwar often quotes Erdogan to enhance his own image as a moderate Muslim leader in South-Eeast Asia. Now their silence on the violent protests across Turkey is regrettable.

To be fair, Umno is similarly quiet, for Erdogan’s merciless clampdown on dissent is something that Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Najib Abdul Razak has long agreed with.