With his trademark sarcasm, Dr Mahathir Mohamad has accused the police of preventing Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak from giving the people of Malaysia full democratic freedom.

The 92-year-old former premier said this in a blog posting, where he described the Malaysian police as being “sungguh jahat” (extremely malicious).

He claimed that while Najib and the ministers did not obstruct the planned debate between him and minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, lower-ranked police officers however were a stumbling block.

“Apparently a school cannot be used (for the debate), apparently there will be rioting, there are protests from public and whatnot.

“The IGP (inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar) has no objections. He said this is not police business. It is the district police officers who are not giving permission (for the debate),” he added...