20 July: A video has surfaced of Malaysia’s PM, Health DG and few other prominent leaders defaced in a mural previously dedicated to them.
Twitter, where most things go viral, was the first to catch wind of this selfish act.
Twitter user @MrJamesLabu posted a video showing the damage done to the artwork, only recently completed in June by local artist, Suhaimi Ali.
The video depicts the extent of the damage. In it, the wall on which the leaders were drawn, was callously smeared with red spray paint, with the eyes of DG Noor Hisham and others coloured red.
Vulgarities such as “bangsat”, “babi” were also scrawled in red ink across the mural.
https://twitter.com/MrJamesLabu/status/1285037881443020800?s=20
Subsequent to finding the destruction, the police and the artist responsible for the mural arrived on the scene to survey the damage and see if there was any part of the mural still salvageable.
Well, it was not. The mural was covered for a bit but at around 2pm on the day itself, the mural was painted over, with the work and the lengths at which the artist went to in order to create the artwork, gone forever.
https://twitter.com/MrJamesLabu/status/1285080193665622017?s=20
The Twitter user who filmed the carnage later added on that there were closed-circuit television(CCTV) cameras were at the scene of the crime.
Social media users were hugely saddened to see this stupidly selfish act but a common thread of feeling amongst users was a shared pity for the artist himself who put in the work to make the beautiful artwork for public viewing.
If you hate someone, make it personal. Do not drag everyone into your hates. You drag the artist. This is sad and awful. To the artist, your mural is great. I appreciate your art. But this vandalism doesn't have love towards it. Whoever did this, you are not human.
— izzat (@usernameizzat) July 20, 2020
The beautiful mural had been previously visited by the nation’s sweetheart, our Health DG Noor Hisham Abdullah where he amusingly posed for a picture, showing us his lighthearted side.
Anyone with any information on this uncaring act should contact the Shah Alam police.
