Investigations are being carried out on the individuals who vandalised the murals of national figures at Taman Cahaya Alam, Section U12. The suspects are believed to be two women who have yet to be identified.
According to Shah Alam district police chief ACP Baharudin Mat Taib, the two suspects were detected from a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera recording of a nearby shop, reported Bernama.
Here’s footage from the CCTV video posted on Polis Diraja Malaysia:
“We are locating these individuals. Give us time to investigate this incident and we hope no one will issue unnecessary statements,” Baharudin Mat Taib said.
Investigations are currently being carried out under Section 504/427 of the Penal Code which carries a jail term of up to five years, or a fine, or both, if convicted.
This comes after a restaurant worker noticed the vandalised murals while passing by the area at about 8am on 20 July.
Busuknye hati ??? pic.twitter.com/9jOQDKwTgm
— Labu suka anak pak aji (@MrJamesLabu) July 20, 2020
Offensive words were seen written in red paint on the portraits of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.
Not long after, Shah Alam City Council staff painted over the vandalised mural with white paint, according to a Facebook post by Bernama.
The murals were the artworks of three young artists, namely, Muhammad Suhaimi Ali, 27, Muhamad Firdaus Nordin, 26, and Abdul Hadi Ramli, 27.
In a report by The Star, Suhaimi said that he is heartbroken over how his and his friends’ artwork had been defaced.
“We had put in so much effort to create the murals and someone actually had the audacity to destroy them,” he said.
“It also makes me very angry.”
Suhaimi added that Prime Minister Muhyiddin was scheduled to visit the site this week, but said that the murals had already been painted over by the local authorities.
The portraits of the King and Dr Noor Hisham were painted by Suhaimi while his friends painted the other personalities. When asked if he would be repainting the murals, Suhaimi said he would do so in the near future, but he would need to find a vandal-proof location first.
Also read: (UPDATED) Shah Alam Mural of Dr Noor Hisham & Other Prominent M’sian Figures Vandalised
