ADUN SPEAKS | As Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation gradually improves, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s government has become increasingly restless by taking a series of actions aimed at suppressing dissent and trampling freedom of expression.

Just this week alone, former deputy women, family and community development minister Hannah Yeoh as well as human rights lawyer and activist Siti Kasim were called up by the police for questioning.

Yeoh was called up over her anti-child marriage remark while Siti was called up likely over a social media post she made about PAS.

Besides that, Attorney-General Idrus Harun filed an ex-parte application to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Malaysiakini and its editor-in-chief Steven Gan over readers’ comments in Malaysiakini’s comment section.

Coincidentally, former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman also said that he is being investigated by the police under the Sedition Act, following an interview he gave to Al Jazeera on March 6 in which he criticised Muhyiddin and the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

Clearly, the purpose behind the backdoor government’s series of actions that targeted the civil society, the media, and the opposition was to create white terror that deters people from speaking up.