Although he spent just three days behind bars, it was certainly not a bed of roses for cartoonist Zunar, who had to sleep on wooden planks while in the lock-up at the Dang Wangi police station.

 

Zunar, whose full name is Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaque, said there was not even a makeshift mattress for him to lie down on at night.

 

“I was only given a 'Good Morning’ towel and a set of toiletries on my last day at the lock-up,” he told Malaysiakini after being released on police bail yesterday.

 

The political cartoonist is adamant that he did not deserve to be thrown into the lock-up, more so sharing the same cell with 15 alleged hardcore criminals, many of whom are said to be robbers and thieves.

 

Nevertheless, he said, the other detainees were not in any way hostile towards him as the inmates “respected one another”.

 

He also had praises for the police officers with whom he had contact while in the lock-up, describing them as a “group of good people who were just doing their job”.

 

“They treated me well. I have no complaints about them,” he said.

 

But the same, he added, could not be said about Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar ( above , left ).

 

Zunar “advised” the police chief to stop wasting time on Twitter and instead to go to the ground and listen to what the people have to say.

 

“What I write on Twitter simply reflects people’s feelings everywhere. Be the Ketua Polis Negara and not the Ketua Twitter Negara,” he told Khalid.

 

Tweet criticising judges

Zunar added that Khalid should instead file a civil suit against him if he had thought that what he said was defamatory, instead of using criminal law.

 

The cartoonist was arrested by police on Wednesday night and investigated for sedition over a tweet against the Federal Court judges who convicted Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim in his Sodomy II case.

 

He had accused the judges of being “lackeys in robes”.

 

Zunar is “100 percent sure that he will be charged” under the Sedition Act despite his lawyer, Melissa Sasidaran, saying that she was unsure whether the political cartoonist would eventually be brought to court.

“They were only looking for a reason to lock me up, and I guess they found the opportunity to do so after the tweet,” Zunar said.

 

Nevertheless, his latest stint in the lock-up will not deter him, with the cartoonist vowing that he will remain defiant and unbowed.