KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Political cartoonist Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaque was forced today to cancel the relaunch of his book “ROS in Kangkong Land” after to the police threatened to arrest him for failing to obtain a proper permit for the event.
Zulkiflee, better known as “Zunar”, was scheduled to hold the launch here at Brickfields, in front of the MyHotel building but police officers arrived shortly before the event started.
“We have been advised by our lawyers not to carry on with the event, there are now 30 to 40 police officers here.
“We will not proceed, although no arrests have been made yet, we were told by police we did not have a permit for the event,” Zunar’s assistant Ridzal Dy Rafie told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
“This is to avoid Zunar being arrested as he is scheduled to go to Geneva on March 3,” Ridzal added.
Zunar told Malay Mail Online earlier that police had threatened to arrest him if he went ahead with the relaunch of his book.
“They have not done anything but they are waiting for another team to arrive, they say they will detain me if I proceed with the launch,” he said earlier.
Zunar’s previous attempt to launch his newest works earlier this month was cancelled after police seized copies of the said book.
On February 10, police arrested Zunar under the Sedition Act 1948 over his Twitter remark on the judiciary over Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s recent sodomy conviction by the Federal Court.
On January 28, police raided his office and seized 149 of his books while he was away in London.
Zunar has accused the authorities of trying to “silence” him over his cartoons and the arrest over his tweet was just an excuse to “legitimise” the act.
