Cartoonist Zunar, or better known as Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, will go to the United States beginning next week until Feb 1 for his ‘Fight Through Cartoons” tour, where among others he will deliver a keynote speech at the Annual Lecture on Asian Democracy on Jan 22.

The event is organised by the Center for Asian Democracy, University of  Louisville.  

While there, Zunar will be addressing the challenges and obstacles he faced as a political cartoonist in Malaysia, where he had been arrested and detained under the Sedition Act, as well as seven of his books being banned by the government and his office raided twice.

“I will also touch on press freedom and the various restrictions on civil liberties in Malaysia, as well as major issues such as the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case, the Scorpene scandal, the conspiracy against former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and the controversial ‘Allah’ issue.

“My cartoons are also not allowed to be published by the mainstream media, which are also controlled by the government,” he said in a statement.

Zunar is the third person to address the university after Chinese human right activist Harry Wu, who was jailed for 18 years and gave a talk at the university last year; and former US ambassador to Myanmar Derek James Mitchell, who spoke in 2012.

He said that while there he will also conduct several cartoon classes for arts and media students. Zunar had previously conducted solo exhibitions in Bilbao (Spain), London and Shah Alam, Selangor.

The cartoonist described the invitation as a “morale booster” for him to continue to struggle via his cartoons.

Following that, he will go to the nation’s capital, Washington DC, where he will be having a talk session and book promotion at a major bookstore, Busboys and Poets.  

“This is my first promotion in a book store, and ironically it is outside Malaysia!” he exclaimed.