POLITICAL cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, popularly known as Zunar, said he did not know why he was denied entry into Sarawak earlier this month.

Zunar was stopped at the Kuching International Airport on arrival from Kuala Lumpur on December 9 and sent back to the peninsula. He was told he was on a list of Malaysians banned from entering the state.

He was set to attend a two-day cartoon drawing workshop during the Human Rights Festival at La Promenade Mall in Samarahan.

“They didn’t tell me (what the reason was) then and have not told me since, either,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Zunar said when he was denied entry, he repeatedly asked for a reason.

“Just following instructions” was all he got, he said.

Zunar said the incident was a shock as he was allowed entry in 2018.

“I’m trying to figure out what I did that offended the state government.”

Zunar said he had made a last-ditch bid to enter Sarawak earlier this month.

“I told them I was to host a cartoon-drawing workshop for two days. I told them (the Immigration officers) that since it’s my workshop, no one could replace me.

“I told them the two-day workshop was being attended by students and that it would be a shame if it was cancelled.”

Zunar said when he was asked to show proof there was such a workshop, he showed them the festival poster.

He was granted a three-day pass and then instructed to leave the state on December 10.

Zunar said he had planned to fly his family to Sarawak for a two-day trip after his workshop.

“All that was spoiled,” he said.

Zunar flew home late December 10.

He said he was considering writing to Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg over the entry ban.

“Do I have to write for an exemption every time I have to go to Sarawak?”

The state government never comments on the so-called “blacklist”.

In 2016, Zunar was arrested under the Sedition Act 1948 for cartoons that allegedly insulted former prime minister Najib Razak.

The arrest came a day after Umno members disrupted his exhibition at the George Town Literary Festival and requested the show be cancelled, saying the cartoonist’s materials were seditious. – December 29, 2023.