Prime Minister Najib Razak’s pledge to “uphold civil liberties” was belied by passage in November of the Peaceful Assembly Act, which bans “assemblies in motion” and empowers the police to control the content and conduct of public meetings. Police used the Societies Act to ban Bersih 2.0, a popular coalition demanding clean elections, and harshly broke up a July 9 rally in Kuala Lumpur, arresting nearly 1700 people. The government has not fulfilled its promise to repeal the Internal Security Act, an administrative detention law. On January 9, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, tried for consensual same-sex relations in a trial marred by due processes violations, was acquitted.