Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, observed the naturalist Henry David Thoreau.

Tweak Thoreau’s aphorism and you have a good description these days of the government’s attitude to Anwar Ibrahim: most of it shows an unquiet desperation towards him.

His most recent pronouncement in Parliament may be the subject of an inquiry that could result in his suspension from that august body.

A week ago, some speeches he made in Penang were the subject of police reports that could see him hauled to court for sedition perhaps, among other possible charges...