Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz is perplexed by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that says Malaysia is slowly becoming a police state.

"You are so free here you can ask me a lot of questions. What human rights have been pulled?" Nazri asked at a press conference in the Parliament lobby today.

"Do you feel like (we are in) Zimbabwe, or Libya?" he added.

However, Nazri ended his diatribe by saying that the HRW report was just its opinion, and can be tolerated.

In its report, the watchdog accused Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak ( photo ) of breaking his promise of reform and instead unleashing a 'wave of repression' against dissenters, which has resulted in a climate of fear.

They also claimed that the space for public debate and free speech in Malaysia is shrinking because the government continues to resort to criminal laws to silence critics.

The report is released ahead of United States President Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia next month, with the view that the US would press for reforms on laws used to curtail freedom of expression.