An influential and independent human rights group says Malaysia arrested nearly 1,000 anti-government protesters in 2009, signaling what it’s calling a "heightened intolerance."

Political tensions rose in this Southeast Asian nation following record losses in the polls by the government now led by Prime Minister, Najib Razak.

Tensions are still high and could rise further with the sodomy trial of opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, resuming next month.

[John Liu, Voice of the Malaysian People]:
"We find several regressive trends which were observed in 2009, number one, increasingly serious and repeated human rights violations, for example death in custody, death by police shooting and torture; number two, the culture of impunity, the heightened intolerance towards dissent which was manifested in the arrest of close to a thousand people for protests against the government and the government's resistance to change."

Prime Minister, Najib, took office in April last year, pledging political and economic reforms to revive his coalition and woo foreign investments to Malaysia.

But since taking office, Najib has released most of the detainees held under the Internal Security Act that allows for detention without trial.

But in Voice of the Malaysian People’s annual report, released on Wednesday, it says that despite the pledge, 167 people were arrested in May last year for protesting a violent attempt to overthrow the government… that unseated the opposition from the northern state of Perak where it had ruled.