Malaysian artist skewers officials through posters
2016.02.17
Updated at 11:15 a.m. ET on 2016-02-18
The tagline to Fahmi Reza’s Twitter page says it all in two words: “Visual Disobedience.”
For years, the 38-year-old Malaysian graphic artist has been creating political art and defying his country’s authority figures by lampooining them in satirical posters.
Amid an increase in cases in which government critics have been arrested or charged on the pretext of violating the country’s Sedition Act, Fahmi has used his art to cast a spotlight on the trend.
Last month, the self-taught artist caused a stir on Twitter by posting his latest rendition of Prime Minister Najib Razak, as a clown. The caption reads, “In 2015, the Sedition Act was used 91 times. But in a country full of corruption, we are all seditious.”
He circulated the drawing online five days after Malaysia’s attorney general cleared Najib of potential charges in a financial scandal that has beleaguered the PM for months.
The same day, the Royal Malaysia Police’s Cyber Investigation Response Center posted a warning on Fahmi’s Twitter account telling him that he was “under surveillance.”
But the move may have have backfired. Since then, fans of Fahmi have posted other images of the prime minister with creative and colorful variations on the clown theme. The online images have gone viral through the hashtag “We are all seditious.”
The artist describes himself as “an ordinary citizen fighting back against Big Brother.”
“Throughout history, protest posters have always played an important role in the people’s struggle for social change. Posters can inspire and motivate, and can be used as a tool to raise awareness and to wake people up,” Fahmi told BenarNews.
“We need to stop being afraid of our government. We need to have the courage to stand up against injustice, against corruption,” he added.
This version corrects errors that appeared in some of the captions in an earlier version.