PETALING JAYA: Racism has no place in “Malaysia Baru” and is a major stumbling block to nation-building efforts, said controversial political cartoonist Zulkiflee SM Anwarul Haque.
Zulkiflee, better known as Zunar, said Malaysia as a nation, would not be able to progress if the society still had a racist mentality.
“Our education curriculum is such that it divides us. There is even a special university for a specific race and I think this is not right.
“This mentally splits us and will not help with the progress of the country,” he said at the launch of his new ‘Kartun Anti Racism’ book here today.
His book, which contains 48 illustrations, calls for racial equality and is part of his “nation rebuilding” mission.
Zunar said discrimination was still rampant in the country and suggested for the government to reform the education system to ensure that it was racism-free.
“It’s not going to be easy but we need to start somewhere. People always say change is a difficult thing, especially when it comes to sensitive things like race… it becomes taboo.
“(But) If not now, when? We need to start planting the seeds first before trees can bear fruit.
“It might not even happen in my lifetime but we need to start somewhere,” he said.
Kartun Anti Racism is Zunar’s 19th publication. His previous work has been heavily censured by the former Barisan Nasional government, with one book ‘Sapuman: Man of Steal’, being banned.
The order for the ban came in October 2017 but was lifted through a letter from the Home Ministry on Aug 9 last year.
Zunar said he would continue being vocal about the government to ensure check and balance.
“Our mistake before this was giving the government too much power.
“The people hold the power and we have to speak up when we need to,” he said.