As I wrote in a column in May last year entitled ‘Zunar zaps the zombies’ , there are few if any people I admire more than Zulkifly Anwar Haque aka Zunar, who for years has used his cartoons to lampoon the platoons of goons, buffoons and loony-tunes, not to mention the loony-Tuns, who have long been running - and ruining - Malaysia.

He’s one of the pitifully few heroes in the struggle against the zanies, zealots, xenophobes and moral and ethical zombies of the zalim Barisan Nasional regime, and a shining, shaming example to the millions of Malaysians who remain too lazy, dozy, cosy or just plain gutless to take a stand against the ruin of the country they claim to love by a gang of lying, criminal zeroes.

But, as Zunar reminded us in his appearances in person and interviews on radio and TV during his flying visit to Sydney, Umno/BN appears to be increasingly becoming one of its own worst enemies by racking-up such an astonishing string of zeroes as to amaze and appall not just formerly dozy Malaysians, but also to attract the opprobrium of the whole wide world.

Everywhere you look these days, from the RM2,600,000,000 that passed through Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank account and the ongoing fiasco of the RM42,000,000,000 1MDB fraud to the Malaysian football team’s 6-0, 10-0 and now 6-0 again thrashings by such low-level opponents as Palestine and the UAE in World Cup qualifying matches, Umno/BN is scoring zeroes.

But the human zeroes responsible for such catastrophes are responding to them by doing...nothing. Nada, zip, or to once again repeat our theme here, zero. There is zero sign that Najib intends to ever come clean about either his personal banking transactions or the billions missing from 1MDB.

And similarly zero sign that Youth and Sports Minister in Najib’s alleged ‘government’, Khairy Jamaluddin, intends to take the slightest responsibility for the disgraceful state of affairs in his department.

It is also clear that there is zero chance that any of the other zeroes infesting and supporting the zombie Umno/BN regime will do anything but absolute zero about getting rid of Najib, Khairy or any of their other partners in crime and incompetence, as they are all without exception either willing accomplices in or accessories to whatever dirty deeds one or more of them commit.

All of which explains why, of course, they have zero tolerance for not only Zunar’s books of cartoons, but also for leaving him at liberty to produce them. As countless formerly Umno/BN-unaware Australians have been outraged to learn this past week, this most talented and persistent of patriots is facing a raft of charges that could earn him about 45 years in jail.

But Zunar himself is undaunted, declaring to the many audiences he addressed this past week that he has no plans to seek refuge from regime repression and retribution in some cartoon-friendly foreign country, but to stay in Malaysia and keep demonstrating his philosophy that ‘even my pen has a stand’.

Ridiculing them right out of power

But, far from seeing himself as a hero against the zeroes, this most modest, unassuming and softly-spoken of men simply considers it his duty as a Malaysian citizen to use his cartooning talents to combat the criminal regime by what he considers the most effective possible means, which is to ridicule them right out of power.

He also hopes to inspire other Malaysians to do whatever they can think of to join him and his fellow opponents of the lying, thieving regime to do however much or little they can to zap the Umno/BN zeroes.

And in this regard he says he is tremendously heartened by the fact that the younger generation of Malaysians of all races and creeds seem to be increasingly demonstrating zero-tolerance of the regime.

Certainly more and more Malaysians are joining him in seeing Najib and the gang as a laughing-stock, as evidenced by over a million ‘likes’ on social media for one of his most recent cartoons.

And his latest banned book is bound to win him floods more fans. Of course there’s no space here to take you through the entire 128 pages of this hilarious collection, but the cover itself says volumes.

In illustration of the book’s title, ‘Sapuman, Man of Steal’, the cover shows Najib flying along with a bundle labelled ‘RM2.6 billion’ in one hand, and the bat-infested ‘Putar Jaya’ building down below. And of course the drawing also features Zunar’s trademark sketches of a diamond ring, a crone-like creature with a big hairdo with a RM1,200 price-tag and an idiot in police uniform going ‘twit, twit’ on his smartphone.

And in added emphasis of the core message of the cover, the book is priced at RM26 to further symbolise the RM2,600,000,000 that Sapuman, the super-zero, has been revealed as having received in his personal bank account.

But as fiendishly funny as ‘Sapuman, Man of Steal’ most certainly is, it is far from Zunar’s intention to simply sell lots of copies, get lots of laughs and make himself a hero.

What keeps him drawing cartoons making fun of Umno/BN hoons, goons and buffoons is the thought that by his efforts he’s helping inspire as many other Malaysians as possible to realise that, if only they can be awakened from their zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs, they can all be heroes in the fight against the zeroes.

DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he coaches and mentors writers and authors and practises as a writing therapist. Published books of his columns for Malaysiakini include ‘Mad about Malaysia', ‘Even Madder about Malaysia', ‘Missing Malaysia', ‘1Malaysia.con’ and ‘Malaysia Mania’.