You can now join in supporting my continuous battle by pledging on Patreon! Steal Wars Mug (White) Donald Dedak Mug (White) Donald Dedak T-Shirt (Black) Enter the amount you wish to donate Donald Dedak Combo T-shirt + Mug (Black)A collection of my works compiled into cartoon books. Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaque (born 15 May 1962), better known as Zunar to Malaysians, is a political cartoonist. He currently faces up to 43 years in prison for criticising the Malaysian government. Zunar was born on 15 May 1962, at Bukit Junun, Gurun, Kedah. He previously worked as a laboratory technician and during his pastime delved in drawing cartoons. He was also a secretary to the Association of Selangor and Federal Territory cartoonists. Quite often he held workshops for individuals wanting to venture into cartoon business. Zunar often likes to bring along a pen and notebook inside his travel bag during his drawing excursions, from which he will record ideas from all walks of life and would translate them into caricatures or cartoons.
Zunar produced his first works as early as 1973 which were published in the magazine Bambino. Upon the encouragement of family and friends, his drawings were also published weekly in newspapers and magazines such as the Kisah Cinta magazine and issues of Gila-Gila, a publication by Creative Enterprise Sdn Bhd. In Gila-Gila, from time to time his cartoons began attracting the attention of readers and publishers as well as due to their cynical and political nature. This gave him an advantage for his work to be published in issues of the Chili Padi magazine (part of the Gila-Gila magazine) under the title Gebang-Gebang. Zunar then began producing work in a daily-news comic strip called Papa. Zunar's name became well-known when he got himself involved in the Reformasi movement following the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the then-deputy prime minister in 1998. His involvement in the movement led to his detention along with several other activists. After his release, he concentrated on political cartoons.
He produced several books of cartoons touching on many reform movements that he had previously participated. To date he continues to draw political cartoons, namely for politically owned newspapers, including Harakah. At 9pm on 10 February 2016, he was arrested at his home in Kuala Lumpur, and detained for three days without charge. He was later charged in relation to nine political images he had posted online, with a potential penalty of up to 43 years in prison. Five of his books have also been banned on the grounds that their contents are “detrimental to public order”. He is currently out on bail, awaiting his court date of 6 November. Zunar uses a lot of pen and brush work with adventurous line techniques. He uses simple strokes with economical lines. His initial strokes in his works then differ from the latest works ~ the lines mature hand in hand with the maturity of his drawings. His lines and hatching techniques in cartoons is seen more towards the style of editorial cartooning, similar to the works of Mike Peters and Frank Cammuso.
In fact, his drawing style combines a bit of both of these two cartoonists' techniques as seen in their drawings. Zunar is a cartoonist who always employs sharp satirical humor in his drawings. On 24 June 2010 "1 Funny Malaysia", a book of his published works from the Malaysiakini website (published by Malaysiakini), and "Gedung Kartun", "Perak Dalam Kartun" and "Isu Dalam Kartun" which were a series of magazines about political and recent issues in Malaysia and Perak (published by his company Sepakat Efektif Sdn. Bhd.) were banned and prohibited by the Malaysian Home Ministry to be sold in public. He stated that the bans were illegal and contrary to the rights of free speech guaranteed by the Constitution of Malaysia. On 27 July 2010, he and his employer Malaysiakini filed two separate suits in the Kuala Lumpur High Court to challenge the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs in banning his books. On 24 September 2010, Zunar was arrested by the police and charged for sedition, 3 hours prior to the launching of his just-published book "Cartoon-O-Phobia"[3] and jailed for one day.
[4] He faced possible charge under the Sedition Act which carry a maximum three years imprisonment.[5] During the arrest the police seized 66 copies of the book. The clamp-down may have been due to reasons that the book contains 'sensitive' issues such as the Altantuya murder, the conspiracy against Anwar, the prime minister's wife Rosmah, the loss of fighter jet engines, the Scorpene submarine that cannot dive, issues in Sarawak, racism, corruption, waste of public funds, among others. On 12 January 2013, Zunar together with other opposition leaders and supporters organized a demonstration against the government.[8] The rally was organized by Mohamad Sabu to show support for the Opposition change agenda. Zunar was also referred to as the Commander during the HKR rally with a group of cartoonist who claim that they are from the independent cartoonist group. Zunar was the leader for the Brickfields and KL Central group."Himpunan hanya platform peralatkan rakyat", Utusan Online Kuala Lumpur, 15 January 2013.
Retrieved on 28 February 2013."Kejayaan himpunan lambang kebangkitan rakyat" Archived 23 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 14 May 2013"HKR berjaya, ratusan ribu banjiri Stadium Merdeka" Archived 16 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Harakah Daily, Kuala Lumpur, 12 Januari 2013. Retrieved on 28 February 2013. Zunar’s New Book (WASABI) Launching on 14 May 2016 @ 8pm! Date: 14 May 2016 @ 8pm Location: KL Chinese Assembly Hall, No.1, Jalan Maharajalela, KLWHEN THE call comes, I move briskly to an unassuming quick-bite coffeehouse in Northwest Washington. Because when a man from Malaysia says his nation’s “corrupt regime” is trying to put him behind bars for decades, and that he’s maximizing his time while out on bail, awaiting trial and charged with nine counts of sedition — well, his minutes are especially valuable right now. The man is Zulkiflee Anwar Alhaque, a fairly fearless political artist better known by the nom-de-toon Zunar, and he traveled to the United States this week to pick up the 2015 International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists — the first time the group has so honored a cartoonist.
It’s been a dramatic past 12 months even for Zunar. Last November, he says, 150 of his books were confiscated by authorities during a raid of his offices, and three of his assistants were arrested for selling his books (the cartoonist was away on a speaking tour at the time). Zunar’s cartoons unflinchingly lampoon abuses and crimes by high-ranking officials, and five of his books have been banned in his home country. I think about that when Zunar shows me the original art of a cartoon he drew that very morning. As we sit several blocks from the White House, he has rendered President Obama as turning a blind eye to certain issues in Malaysia: Zunar hands me one of those banned books — this cartoon contraband is titled “Sapuman, Man of Steal,” and the cover depicts Malaysian leadership as a thief in tights — and I think of what Zunar has noted before: that the government has even pressured his staff to turn over its customer lists. Early this year, Zunar was charged with sedition and still awaits trial;
if found guilty, he says, he could serve up to 43 years. Zunar tells me if he were only facing one charge, and happened to get a fair judge, then he might stand a chance. But he sees nine charges as a rigged game. Given those odds against beating the house, I ask him whether he’s considered becoming a fugitive and, as some cartoonists have done, be tried in absentia. No, he replies immediately, he wants to be there to back up his political convictions, even if he receives a conviction for his politics. As Zunar likes to say: “How can I be neutral when even my pen has a stand?” Zunar talks about facing down his nation’s Sedition Act, Penal Code and the Printing & Press Act, and I glance at his book’s back cover. In what is effectively Zunar’s self-portrait, an artist paints with a brush in his mouth, even as his limbs are shackled by those very acts and code. Zunar has faced down the government for years now. He came under especially great scrutiny five years ago, and was briefly locked up before going free.
He was not deterred; if anything, he intensified his criticism of the prime minister and his administration. The following year, he received the Courage in Cartooning Award from the Washington area-based Cartoonist Rights Network International. Before long, the previous week’s Paris terror attacks spark new conversation about the massacre at Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices, by jihadists. Zunar notes that he himself, unlike the Hebdo cartoonists, does not satirize religion. “I don’t need to provoke a reaction over religion,” he says. “For me, the common enemy to us all is the corrupt regime. That is why I draw cartoons for the people.” Zunar does emphasize, though, that the Hebdo attack raised world awareness about cartoonists around the world who face harassment, assault and imprisonment by their governments. “We are all Charlie Hebdo,” he says. Our time is up, and Zunar — who spoke at a United Nations forum this year about press freedom — has a message to spread. We pack up at the door, and as the rain spits over the facade’s overhang, Zunar waits for his wife to pull out his hat, to shield him from this gray, persistent spit of raindrops.