COMMENT | The recipe for survival for any embattled ruling party to stay in power is the same – persuasion or force. If persuasion is not working, then force is the only avenue to deal with dissent.

We have seen it during the Reformasi era, how then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad used the ISA and public institutions at curbing opposition to his rule and we have seen how then-premier Najib Abdul Razak used the Sedition Act to deal with dissent during his rule.

Now it seems that the Perikatan Nasional government is becoming increasingly repressive by the hour.

It is the norm that police will call up participants or organisers of public rallies to record 112 statements, so-called because they are recorded under a procedure prescribed in section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

However, it is abnormal to call members of Suhakam and the Bar Council...