THE HEAVY HAND OF THE STATE

From press censorship to extra-judicial custody and torture to forced sterilisation, oppression took many forms-as did acts of resistance

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Provoked by an adverse court judgment that would have effectively unseated her, the PM sought to neutralise the courts, the political opposition and the press at a stroke with the proclamation of a state of national emergency.

Opposition leaders were swiftly imprisoned and power to newspaper presses cut off. While this was a brutal start, there was worse to come-and much of it on the back of the draconian MISA and COFEPOSA ordinances the government had pushed through in the preceding years.