MALAYSIAN CARTOONIST OVERCOMES DAYS OF DARKNESS
SEOUL— When 56-year-old Malaysian political cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, better known as Zunar, irked then police chief Khalid Abu Bakar in 2015, the official ordered his arrest via Twitter.
Zunar was detained for three days without charge, but the artist fought back the best way he could.
“I made a statement: If you’re going to fight me using Twitter, I will fight in the same way,” Zunar said during his keynote speech at a journalism conference on Oct. 6. “From now on, I will draw you every day in my cartoons.”
Fighting back
Every cartoon he subsequently had published in independent news portal Malaysiakini depicted the police chief in ridiculous images, often as a character holding his phone and tweeting.
But in the same year, the government slapped him with nine sedition charges over his work against the incarceration of then opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and was sentenced to 43 years in prison.
“They told me that the content of my comic books is detrimental to public order and can influence the public to revolt against the government,” Zunar said.
Then Prime Minister Najib Razak used the Sedition Act, a relic of the British colonial era, to gag free speech.
Weapon of choice
In times of political repression, laughter has become Zunar’s weapon of choice: from exposing the billion-dollar corruption of Razak to criticizing excesses of power, to the public clamor for democracy in Malaysia.
One of his favorite subjects was Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, whose extravagance has been tagged by international journalists as one rivaling that of former first lady Imelda Marcos.
Zunar would often depict Mansor as a materialistic socialite who would spend millions on bags, jewelry and extremely expensive accessories.
He depicted her as a lady with a body made of the luxurious hand bags that she brought using public funds.
Days of darkness
What Zunar experienced during the despotic era, however, was anything but funny with the government raiding his office, banning his books and destroying or confiscating his art.
“During one of the investigations, I told the police: You can ban my work, you can ban my cartoon, but you cannot ban my mind. I will keep drawing until the last drop of my ink,” he said.
“We have to do something at our own level—do what we do best—when we are faced with corrupt politicians and dictators,” he said.
Inspiring change
Zunar’s work has indeed inspired a revolution.
The scandal-mired Razak regime was booted out of power in May and the new government dropped the sedition charges against him and lifted his travel ban on July 30.
For the passionate political artist who has fought with his pen alone, the best protest indeed is laughter.
“When I draw in my studio, I have a glass where I put my pen. I call that my ‘pen stand.’ And somehow, that is my philosophy in cartooning: How can I be neutral? Even my pen has a stand.”