COMMENT | Isn’t it ironic that a few years ago, the Malaysian police did not do anything about one of its senior officers having large sums of money deposited into his bank accounts in Australia? Isn’t it a bigger irony that he was exonerated and the police decreed that he need not account for his unlikely wealth and the source of it?

Isn’t it also an irony that the same police force now demands the arrest of an editor whose primary “offence” appears to have reproduced a previously done artwork on the cover of a book?

Isn’t it a bigger folly that the police want to use the threat of an Interpol Red Notice now when they had failed to use it when there was a genuine reason -- when all the thieving was going on in 1MDB?

Wouldn’t it be the ultimate indignation when Interpol tears up the request like when the police applied for a Red Notice for Sarawak Report editor Claire Rewcastle-Brown a few years ago?

Why use a sledgehammer to swat a fly? Is there a crackdown on freedom of expression? It looks obvious with the recent actions. Doesn’t it look concerted and not camouflaged? Isn’t the arbitrary pettiness a big giveaway?

Over the weeks, we have seen pockets of action against media personnel and concerned citizens and groups who have expressed their views on matters of public importance.

It is quite obvious from its recent response that this government will ...