Four sculptors who worked on the restoration of the National Monument or Tugu Negara when it was bombed by communist terrorists in August 1975 reunited after 46 years recently.
Zolkeply Maulana, Mufti Jantan and Abdul Mansoor Ibrahim, graduates of UiTM's (Universiti Teknologi Mara) School of Fine Art and their Australian lecturer Christopher Carney had planned the reunion for two years to review and reminisce the good times they spent working on the historical monument.
The trio were fresh graduates when they were handpicked by Carney to assist in the restoration works.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Carney said, "I set the ball rolling for the reunion two years ago. It had to be coordinated well as Mufti lives in Los Angeles, the United States while I'm in Port Huon, Tasmania."
He added that all four of them made full use of social media networking to make their reunion a reality.
Recounting the incident which resulted in his biggest Malaysian project ever, Carney said that he was in Kuala Lumpur a couple of years prior, as an art lecturer in the then Institut Teknologi Mara (now UiTM).
"The bombing of Tugu Negara by communist terrorists took place on Aug 26, 1975. The National Monument, the brainchild of Malaysia's first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, was built in 1966 by the renowned Austrian sculptor, Felix De Weldon to commemorate the sacrifices of Malayan/Malaysian soldiers in World Wars 1 and 2 as well as the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960)," he said.
BEST STUDENTS
A day after the tragedy Carney offered to work on restoring the damage as he felt he had the qualifications and experience to do so.
"I was awarded the job by the government and repair works began six months later. I chose my students Zolkeply, Mufti and Mansoor as my team because they were three of the best students around."
The restoration was completed a year and a week later, in April 1977. Tugu Negara was subsequently opened to the public on May 11 that year.
UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE
Mufti said that working on an important project was an unforgettable experience for all of them.
Recalling his most memorable experience, he said that climbing up the highest figure with Zolkeply to weld the hat on it was the pinnacle of the entire project.
"We took the opportunity to imprint our names on the statue's hat. If anyone uses a drone to film Tugu Negara, I'm pretty sure he can capture our names on film!"
LONG HOURS
Mufti added that the three of them had never handled bronze sculptures prior to the restoration, and mostly dealt with stone sculptures.
"We worked long hours, often in the burning hot sun, but we loved it because we wanted to show Malaysians that we were capable of doing a good job."
GARGANTUAN TASK
Mufti said that once their gargantuan task was completed, they felt like the happiest men in the world.
"It was here that I finally understood what it meant to graduate from ITM with what I had been taught and given the opportunity to do something others could not."
CONFIDENT LOT
For Mansoor it was the thought that they had worked on the bronze monument without the proper equipment, protective attire and safety measures to prevent any untoward accidents.
"The work was tough, but enjoyable from the word go, and despite the demands of precision and creativity, our minds were 100 per cent focused on saving an iconic symbol of Bangsa Malaysia," he said.
HONOUR HIS FATHER
Zolkeply chose to work on the project to honour his father, a policeman attached to the General Operations Force that handled the on-going communist insurgency.
"To my joy, my father made a surprise visit at the site to look at our handiwork and he told his fellow policemen that he was very proud of me," said Zolkeply.
PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
Carney paid tribute to the Public Works Department (JKR) which helped them all the way.
"Four men from the department helped us daily, and the department got us in touch with foundries for our planning and moulding work," he said, adding that they utilised two foundries located in Kuala Terengganu and Sungai Besi.
100 CASTINGS
The restoration team created 100 bronze castings and obtained bronze ingots from the London Metal Market.
"We started work by restoring a small part of the monument, and when officials inspected our work, they were pleased and encouraged us to keep it up," said Carney.
SCIENCE COLLEGE
Carney graduated in Fine Arts majoring in Sculpture from the South Australian School of Art.
He was a lecturer at UiTM and also taught at Cairns College of Tertiary, Advanced and Further Education.
Mansoor graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts from UiTM, and taught at the Mara Junior Science College in Banting, Selangor.
NATIONAL MUSEUM
Mufti graduated with an Art and Design diploma from UiTM, and also obtained a Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Masters of Science in Television from Boston University, the United States.
Zolkeply has a degree in Fine Arts (Painting) from UiTM. Both Mufti and Zolkeply also worked as sculptors for Muzium Negara.
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