Malaysia's National Front government, armed with a court order, took control of disputed Perak state again on Tuesday in a development that will likely deepen political divisions in the country. An appeals court decision on Tuesday delayed the handover of power to the national opposition after they won the right on Monday in the High Court to retake control of the state which they won at the 2008 elections.
After Tuesday's decision, riot police sealed off the assembly building in the state capital of Ipoh, where 90 people were arrested in anti-government protests last week. The crisis in peninsular Malaysia's second largest state began when the National Front government took control of the state government in February through defections orchestrated by Najib Razak before he became premier in April.
It comes at a time when the National Front coalition is at its weakest in 51 years of ruling this Southeast Asian country of 27 million people and as the economy faces its first recession since the Asian financial crisis a decade ago. "Perak is still in a state of limbo and uncertainty," said Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin, the chief minister of the opposition People's Alliance state government.
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