Local cartoonist Zunar was lambasted by yesterday for a political comic strip lampooning Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak and his administration’s effort to locate Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, published on the website of the Washington Post newspaper.
The comic described the Prime Minister as “Too Weak” juxtaposed with a sign saying that the Search and Rescue operations for the missing jetliner had entered “Week Two”:
“The Malaysian government hid so [much] information about the jet. Now, the government tries to blame the pilot to cover up their own weakness in handling this case,” said Zunar, nee Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, to the Washington Post, who in 2010 was arrested and briefly charged with sedition over a book of his political cartoons.
“Should the government act fast and [be] ready to share the information with other countries like the U.S. and China, … it will be a different scenario. But the question is: Why hide it?” continues Zunar, who in 2011 received the Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award from the Cartoonists Rights Network International.
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr. Mohamed Mustafa Ishak condemned Zunar’s commentary as insensitive and misleading.
“It is impossible to hide facts when multi-national forces are roped in to help in the search and rescue mission,” he said, adding it reflected great transparency.
“Science and technology is used in the search and rescue mission, and information are released based on hard facts and evidence, and not based on mere speculation and wild allegation,” he said.
Prof Mustafa said the matter should not be politicised because it involved the life and well-being of human beings.
Kelab Warisan Malaysia president Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz also hit out at Zunar for ridiculing Najib.
“Our Prime Minister has proven his diplomatic capability as he has succeeded in getting so many countries to help in the search using their own budget.
“That shows that Najib is not a weak leader,” he said.
Story: The Star Online / The Washington Post
