Zunar under fire for mocking Najib in the Washington Post

PETALING JAYA: Cartoonist Zunar has come under fire for a comic strip of his in a foreign media mocking the Prime Minister in the effort to search for the missing MH370.

Zunar’s comic appeared on March 18 in the Washington Post comic riffs section, with an accompanying article “Cartoon of the Day: Malaysian artist on the lost jet – and his government’s ‘weak’ response to it.”

Head of Politics, Security and International Affairs Cluster of Professors, Prof Datuk Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak said Zunar’s claim that Malaysia was hiding facts was preposterous.

“It is impossible to hide facts when multi-national forces are roped in to help in the search mission,” he said.

“Science and technology is used. Information is released based on hard facts and evidence, and not based on mere speculation and wild allegation.”

He added that even developed countries were involved in the search using state-of-the-art tools to help locate the missing MH370.

Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, also claimed the Government was trying to blame the pilot of the missing plane to cover up their weakness, after it surfaced that the latter was a supporter of Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Prof Mustafa said the matter should not be politicised because it involved the lives and well-being of human beings.

Kelab Warisan Malaysia president Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz also hit out at Zunar for ridiculing Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

“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.

Mohd Khairul, a lawyer, said Zunar’s claim that Najib only made a statement on day seven of the search was not true, as the Government had already called for a press conference on day one to announce that the aeroplane had gone missing.