Malaysia bans caricatures during general election

Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up. Malaysia’s Election Commission has announced that it is banning caricatures during the next general election.

From Free Malaysia Today:

According to a Bernama report, Wan Ahmad said that the 2011 Sarawak state election saw “too many” examples of “inappropriate” political caricatures.

“The election is a serious matter and we cannot allow political parties to display campaign materials which put down any person,” he said at the time.

The EC, he added, would remove any banners bearing political caricatures during the election campaign period, speculated to begin a few months from now.

Of course, Malaysia cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque (AKA Zunar) is protesting stating that drawing cartoons is a legitimate practice in the country and therefore the Election Commission can’t forbid people from drawing and the commission would better serve fair elections if they enacted reforms like “cleaning the voter rolls and free and fair media access.”