A series of tough measures in recent weeks has raised fears of a major crackdown against tolerance and dissent as rival political forces battle for state power in a society made fragile by economic uncertainties and decades of autocratic rule.

An influential Catholic newsletter faces closure, an inter-ethnic forum on religious freedom gets forcibly disrupted, a popular book on Islam by a respected Malaysian academic is banned and a senior judge has ordered a prominent blogger to reveal his sources as well as the identities of hundreds of thousands of net users who wrote comments to his postings.