CARTOONIST Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque wants the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to fight his travel ban, which he said has hurt him financially.

Zulkiflee, better known as Zunar, said he wanted Suhakam to state its stand on his travel ban, enforced on June 24 last year, and bring up with Putrajaya the fact that his right to travel had been violated.

“I have nine books that are banned, as well as other exhibitions. I get invited to a lot of overseas talks, where I get paid. So, I can say that I am financially affected by the travel ban,” he said when lodging a complaint with Suhakam today.

“I am asking for two things. One, for Suhakam to state its stand on my case publicly, whether the travel ban violates the right of a Malaysian to go overseas.

“Two, I ask that Suhakam bring this up with Putrajaya and tell them that the ban violates Malaysians’ right (to travel abroad) based on the Constitution.”

He said it was unfair that the director-general of Immigration had lifted the travel ban on Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, but refused to give the reasons behind the ban on him.

“Other people have had their travel ban lifted, like Maria and Pua.

“If this (lack of explanation) continues, and there is no urgency by police and the Immigration Department regarding the black and white of my ban, I don’t know what is going to happen to me.”

Zunar said so far, he had received only an official letter from the Immigration Department stating it was acting on “orders from police” and that the travel ban was due to “special reasons”.

“Until now, there is no indication of when the travel ban will expire. I only have in writing that I have been banned from travelling.”

Receiving the cartoonist’s complaint today was Suhakam commissioner Lok Yim Pheng, who said it was working to hold a special meeting with police on travel ban cases.

“We will investigate. Maybe in early January, we will have a meeting with police’s Special Branch, not only for Zunar’s case, but also for other travel ban cases.

“We are in the process of setting a date. Of course, we agree that Zunar’s travel ban cannot be indefinite, but we need to work together with police to see what the status is now.”

Lok did not detail the other travel ban cases she was referring to, saying it was sensitive information.

Zunar filed a legal challenge on December 7 last year, naming the Immigration Department director-general, home minister and Malaysian government as respondents in the application.

On April 14, the court granted Zunar’s application for leave for a judicial review to challenge the travel restriction issued against him by the department.

On November 29, his application to stay his travel ban was rejected by the Kuala Lumpur High Court. – December 20, 2017.