You can’t silence this man. Zunar will keep on drawing.

Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, faces nine charges of speaking out against the government under a draconian, outdated law from 1948.

His crimes — he was charged under the Sedition Act — involve nine tweets and drawings criticising Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, a man who has ruled since 2009 without detractors because those who speak out against him are punished for daring to do so.

Zunar targets the Sedition Act in this cartoon.Source:Twitter

Speaking with news.com.au a month before he appears in court to face the music, Zunar said he would never stop, no matter what the repercussions.

“Everything the (government) does is for one motive, for me to stop drawing,” he said.

“But I still draw. I will draw more. If you see me now I draw more characters since my detention.”

He said the police chief who arrested him now appears in his cartoons, a message that those who cross him are not without their own form of punishment.

Is he worried? He says yes. He would be crazy not to be. But he knows he’s doing the right thing.

“I fear, I’m human. But for me, (drawing) is not a gift but a responsibility. This is my responsibility as a cartoonist, as a Malaysian and as a human being, to stand up to a corrupt regime.”

Here he reminds Malaysians that their words (and tweets) should not be censored.Source:Twitter

Zunar was arrested on February 10. His cartoon books were banned on the grounds they contained material “detrimental to public order”. His office was raided and the printers, vendors and bookstores supplying his cartoons to the public were harassed.

The main message in his cartoons is that free speech should be free. He also takes particular offence to the treatment of former Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was jailed illegally, according to the United Nations, for sodomising a former mail aide.

One of Zunar’s tweets criticising the treatment of Ibrahim was used by police as grounds for laying charges.

It’s not just Zunar who has been targeted. According to Amnesty International, three of Zunar’s assistants were arrested in October last year for selling his books.

The organisation says the Sedition Act does not comply with international human rights standards and violates the right of freedom of expression.

Zunar has painted the Malaysian PM as corrupt in a number of his cartoons.Source:Twitter

There are a number of cartoons Zunar tweeted which made him Malaysia’s enemy. Some challenge the Malaysian prime minister’s legitimacy, others directly respond to the Sedition Act and to silencing those who speak out.

His drawings have earned him praise around the world and support from people who know what Zunar is going through, including Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Ai has been a vocal critic of China and is one of the world’s most celebrated artists for what he draws.

The charges against Zunar will be heard on January 27. He needs all the help he can get, but he says he believes his message is getting through.

“I would say to the government: ‘Please change before people change you’. It’s simple. If they think they can stop me they are wrong. They can ban my books, they can ban my cartoons but they cannot ban my mind. I will keep drawing until the last drop of ink in my pen.”