What unites the opposition is a wish to see the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi ousted. But the parties have differing reasons for this.
Police battled demonstrators in Istanbul as tens of thousands of workers rallied on World Labour Day on Thursday while soaring food prices brought large crowds on to the streets of some Asian capitals. In Istanbul, police used pepper gas and water cannon to disperse workers outside Turkey’s main left-wing labour confederation.
Malaysians awoke on Sunday to the biggest sea-change in politics in almost 40 years, with opposition Islamists and reformists winning control of five states and giving the government a wake-up call. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s multiracial National Front coalition won just a simple majority in Parliament, and his future as leader is in doubt.