KUALA LUMPUR: Police have raided the Cartoon Kafe, owned by prominent opposition political cartoonist Zunar, and seized more than 60 of his upcoming "Cartoon-O-Phobia" book scheduled to be launched tonight.
"I can't talk right now. They are about to arrest me," he told FMT before abruptly putting down the phone.
His lawyers later confirmed that he has been arrested under Sedition Act.
It is learnt that the premises was raided by 10 police officers led by ASP Ari Krishna from the Brickfields police station and Zunar was taken to the Puchong police district headquarters.
His office insisted that his new publication will be released tonight as planned.
A sharper offering
Talking to FMT earlier this week, Zunar, whose full name is Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaq, said his latest offering would be "sharper" than his previous works.
“Will my latest book get banned by the government as well? This has never crossed my mind when I was working on it and I strongly believe Cartoon-O-Phobia has its own strength and will meet the readers' needs," he said in that interview.
Cartoon-O-Phobia features a collection of his cartoons, which appeared in the Malaysiakini news portal from December 2009 to September 2010.
Previously the Home Ministry has banned his other books -- “1 Funny Malaysia", "Perak Darul Kartun" and "Isu Dalam Kartun" -- because “the contents were detrimental to public order and could influence the people to revolt against the leaders and government”.
Meanwhile, Cartoon-O-Phobia was launched by former Perak menteri besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin at the Chinese Assembly Hall this evening.
About 100 people attended the function.There were a few policemen keeping watch but they did not interfere.
'Can't jail my mind'
Likening Zunar's arrest as cartoonish, Nizar said it was unbecoming of the government to take action against the cartoonist over his creative work.
"I have never heard of cartoonists (being arrested) in Western countries or their books being banned," he said.
"How can we live like this? Are we living in an era where we are seeing the prohibition of books?" he asked.
Zunar's wife Fazlina Rosley also read an SMS sent by Zunar, in which he said: “The government is afraid of my book. They can jail me, but they cannot jail my mind”.
Malaysiakini's editor-in-chief Steven Gan also spoke at the book launch. Zunar is a Malaysiakini cartoon contributor and the news portal is also the publisher of Zunar's books.
"The release of his book coming months after his last book was banned is Zunar's way of showing the authorities the middle finger," said Gan.
"You can put Mahathir and Najib's photo on the front cover, but when you use Rosmah's picture, you're in trouble," he said to a laughing audience.
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