KUCHING: A mural featuring the orang utan has been painted over near the India Street Pedestrian Mall and Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah is none too pleased.
The Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister wants to know why this happened, whether it was because the mural was fading or if it was vandalised.
The orang utan mural was the work of Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic on a wall next to Electra House in 2014.
‘’We have got a painting by a famous artist, and if it was vandalised by the public, then I believe we have to educate the public also because things like that are very priceless,” said Abdul Karim.
‘’If the reason for superimposing it is because of vandalism, it is just unfortunate,” he said in a press conference before flagging-off the DayakDaily D’Drift 2022 at its office on Monday (July 4).
‘’Those who do paintings on walls must try to do so in spots where the public cannot easily touch, it must be higher or alternatively there must be some arrangement to protect these murals, if we know it is valuable or priceless.
‘’The authorities and those who want to initiate murals like this in future have to look at it from many angles and one of them is how to make sure the murals will not get spoiled or vandalised by the public,” he said.
‘’We, from the ministry support murals coming up, just like the Ring Lady mural in Mile 10.
‘’So, in future, railings can be put up so the public cannot touch the murals,” he said.
‘’If you were to leave it just like that, passersby will definitely start to touch it, and after a thousand people touch it, the colour will definitely fade.”
Therefore, he said educating the public was very important so as to safeguard public property.
“Once it has become a mural painting, it is public property. We cannot vandalise it,” said Abdul Karim.
