COMMENT Anyone who has wagered on the proposition that there is no such thing as a favourable time for Prime Minister Najib Razak to call for polls would be encouraged to raise his stakes after what happened at Dataran Merdeka in the early hours of today.

The attack by unknown assailants on the band of students who were camped there as part of a campaign for the abolition of the Higher Education Loan Fund (PTPTN) may not become as big a cause célèbre as the beating of Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998.

thugs attacked student in dataran merdeka scene after the attack an injured student Though one victim is wearing a graphic bruise near his right eye in a tableau eerily reminiscent of the ‘black eye’ the current opposition leader suffered in the appalling days of ‘Black September’ while he was in police custody, the latest incident is not likely to impinge on the public consciousness the way Anwar’s ‘black eye’ did.