For Pakatan Harapan leaders, who have been critical of the police using legislation which the coalition pledged to repeal to detain those accused of having links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's defence of the dragnet is a bitter pill to swallow.

“I find this statement difficult to accept coming from the prime minister,” Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy told Malaysiakini this evening...