Detaining and jailing the opposition was Dr Mahthir Mohamad's own strategy when he was prime minister, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak.

He said this in response to Mahathir who earlier today speculated that the government under Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak will crackdown on opposition leaders and activists ahead of the general election.

"From 1998 to 2001, Mahathir detained many of those who opposed him and he used the 'detention without trial law' to detain those he could not charge in court.

"The Human Rights Watch said in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, etc, that Malaysia under Mahathir was a police state while Mahathir was a dictator," he said in a blog posting today...