By Robin Brant
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur
An opposition member of parliament and a journalist have been arrested in Malaysia amid growing fears of a crackdown by the government.
Police detained the two women late on Friday, who are are being held under Malaysia's internal security act.
The stringent measure means they can be detained indefinitely, without trial.
The arrests follow the detention of a prominent online anti-government campaigner and continuing opposition efforts to destabilise the government.
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All of them can be detained indefinitely.
Opposition buoyant
The high-profile blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin was picked up first. He has been a long-time critic of the government.
His arrest was apparently due to blasphemous articles on his website. Late on Friday a journalist for a Chinese-language newspaper was taken in, as well as an opposition MP.
Both women have been accused of stoking racial tension.
The arrests come after a row over comments made by a politician from the Malay majority. He called the country's Chinese minority "squatters" and "immigrants".
But the bigger picture in Malaysia is of a government struggling to stay in power. The opposition won historic levels of support in a general election earlier this year.
Since then it has been threatening to bring down the government by persuading parliamentarians to defect.
More arrests are expected over the weekend, and some observers think this could be a repeat of a major crackdown in 1987.
Then the government ordered dozens of arrests and several newspapers were shut to try to quell dissent.
(BBC)
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