While the government welcomes constructive criticism, insults are not only unwelcome, but may be unethical and immoral, argued Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He was commenting on political cartoonist Zunar, who had received the 2016 Cartooning for Peace Award on May 3 in a ceremony held at the Palais Eynard in Geneva, Switzerland.

Zunar had also exhibited large-scale reproductions of his works which are highly critical of the government and pointedly focused on Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, in the Swiss city.

"Let us have a difference of opinion, but to insult someone, let alone a leader?" Ahmad Zahid said in a press conference after the Home Ministry Family Day in Cheras today.