Utusan prints caricatures of 'communist cruelty'

Muslims being 'forced to eat pork' before they were shot dead ... children and old people being thrown into a fire ...

These are among six contentious caricatures that artist Hamzah Mohd Amin has drawn to expose the “cruelty” of the Malayan communists to ordinary people.

Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia - in both its print and online version today - reported that Hamzah, 71, had come to its office yesterday to hand-deliver the illustrations.

"Today's generation does not know the hardships of life during the communist era. I worked to create the drawings a few weeks ago, so that they will be able to picture the cruelty of the communist and why we hate them," he is quoted as saying.

"The younger generation has only heard the stories from their grandparents but they did not see how communists tortured prisoners.

"Through the drawings, I hope that they will realise the cruelty of the communists and learn from it."

Among the most controversial of his artwork is a depiction of slant-eyed men in tan-coloured uniforms, waving weapons and forcing a group of people to eat pork.

'Imam and bilal from suraus were forced to eat roast pork before being shot' reads the caption(top photo).

Another drawing show two men in uniform, in what appears to be a garden.

One is shown watering a patch of ground with human body-parts over it, while the other holds a basket and is harvesting vegetables from the plot.

The caption reads: 'Bodies of murdered victims were buried in shallow (graves) on vegetable plots, later vegetables plucked from the garden are cooked for meals of their members.'

Another illustration features similar men bundling an old man into a gunny sack and another throwing a kid into burning flames.

The caption describes the scene as communists putting senior citizens in sacks before throwing them into the fire, while children were thrown in directly.

The remaining illustrations are on a method of torture - by pouring salt water into an open wound; abuse of the Quran; and burning of houses.

Hamzah is further quoted as saying that he was called to produce the drawings after the actions of certain parties who tried to portray the communists as heroes, a notion he hopes his cartoons will dispel.

"I get very bitter and angry when communists are acknowledged in this way," he was quoted as saying.

"How can a terrorist group be given recognition?"

Fomerly attached to Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Hamzah was responsible for creating the logo used by the police from 1963-1997.