Prosecuted for my pen
Zunar
I’m a cartoonist in a country where cartooning can be a crime.
Under my pen name, Zunar, I expose corruption and abuses of power by the Malaysian government. As it happens, I have a good deal of material to work with. For instance, Prime Minister Najib Razak is currently facing questions about a $700 million “donation” made to his personal bank account.
To say the least, the Malaysian government has no sense of humour.
Last February, police raided my home in the middle of the night and hauled me off to jail. I was handcuffed for eight hours and thrown into a cell with all the other criminal suspects. I managed to avoid telling my cellmates what I was in for: using Twitter.
I was in the United States in November to receive a press freedom award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. While I was discussing my case with American journalists and cartoonists, President Barack Obama was in Kuala Lumpur meeting Najib – the third time they met face to face.
Obama is eagerly courting Malaysia in his efforts to fight extremism and to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, and his meeting reportedly focused on that to the virtual exclusion of everything else. That’s a grave disappointment and a missed opportunity. Obama has a responsibility to put the issue of human rights on the table.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The legal assault against me is nothing new, but it marks a major escalation. The authorities have repeatedly sought to silence me. My office has been raided multiple times since 2009, and authorities have confiscated thousands of my cartoon books. In 2010, five of my books – including 1 Funny Malaysia – were banned by the home affairs minister, who declared the contents “detrimental to public order”. Later that year I was detained by police and locked up for two days after the publication of Cartoon-O-Phobia. To say the least, the Malaysian government has no sense of humour.
