Malaysia's cartoonist Zunar vows not to pull punches over embattled leader Najib Razak

Zunar has made a living of sketching scathing criticism of Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak - often drawing ire from the government in the process.

And despite facing up to 43 years in jail for a record nine sedition charges, the satirical cartoonist is not about to start pulling his punches.

"Why pinch when you can punch?" Zunar says in a recent interview, cracking a cheeky grin and adding that his aim is always to produce "hard-hitting cartoons".

The 53-year-old Zunar - full name Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque - has come to symbolise a crackdown on dissent in Malaysia that has been accelerating since Najib's long-ruling National Front coalition scraped back into power in 2013.

Najib has been on the ropes for some time, but last week the leader was fighting for his political life after explosive allegations surfaced that hundreds of millions of dollars from a state investment fund had found their way into his accounts.

The claims were just the latest in a series of scandals to put the government on the back foot. Najib's bruised government has responded by lashing out at critics, unleashing a crackdown that has seen more than 100 opposition politicians, activists, students, academics and journalists targeted this year alone.