Don’t visit Malaysia if you’re a Rohingya, says cartoon

The cartoon mocking a Malaysian tourism advertisement depicts the mass graves of the Rohingya as its central subject matter.

YANGON: The Malaysian government, which is facing a huge humanitarian crisis currently apart from dealing with the crime of human trafficking, was mocked in a cartoon published in a Bangkok newspaper, following the discovery of mass graves in Wang Kelian, Perlis a few days ago.

The cartoon that was published in The Nation was discovered by AFP journalist Parameswaran Ponnudurai who shared it on his Facebook page yesterday.

In his post, Parameswaran said, “Grave crisis in Malaysia – I spilled my coffee when I came across this cartoon this morning in The Nation newspaper in Bangkok. Even Najib was not spared.”

The cartoon, drawn to mock a Malaysian tourism advertisement depicted a policeman with a shovel digging up a grave with tens of skulls clearly seen scattered inside.

Saying “Alamak”, a word usually uttered to express shock or surprise, the cop is seen with three women in Indian, Malay and Chinese garb who looked visibly shaken by the find as well.

The cartoon also featured the caricature of a man, closely resembling that of Malaysian prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, who says in a speech bubble, “Obviously, this cartoon is eligible for sedition charges!” a throwback to cartoons previously sketched by Malaysia’s Zunar criticising the government and for which the satirical cartoonist was slapped with multiple charges of sedition.

The Nation’s cartoon came complete with Malaysia’s tourism tagline of “Malaysia Truly Asia” twisted into “Malaysia Truly Embarrassed”.

Flanking the Malaysia tourism logo were the words, “Don’t visit Malaysia 2015 if you are a Rohingya.”

As at the time of writing, the post of the cartoon had been shared 678 times and with one Facebook user commenting, “Yes, well, who is doing the smuggling? And would The Nation dare print anything like this about the situation in Thailand?”