Last Friday, Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal scored 1-0 against DBKL. In a historic judgment passed by the High Court of Malaysia, our national laureate was awarded consolatory damages amounting to RM750,000 for DBKL’s flagrant disregard of the artist’s integrity and intention when altering a commissioned sculpture, which amounted to what art writer Ooi Kok Chuen calls an act of ‘institutional vandalism’.

Commenting on the landmark judgement, Ooi notes that this is ‘great decision that will impact art, public perceptions and respect for our arts and cultural heritage and the preservation and defence of our cultural monuments… and sent out a strident and unequivocal warning to those who dare arbitrarily deface, defile and damage our arts and cultural monument again.”

Congratulations on the win, Datuk!

Details of the case can be found here. Check out Datuk’s press conference with visual effects and commentary by Kow Leong Kiang and Snow Ng!

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Photo by Kow Leong Kiang
Video by Kow Leong Kiang
Edited by Snow Ng and Kow Leong Kiang