THE next time you visit the Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Memorial, look for these two sculptures: a monolith with the Proclamation of Independence, and a large granite block with Tunku’s likeness carved on it, his right arm raised triumphantly as he did at the stroke of midnight on Aug 31, 1957.
We have one person to thank for these works of art, a 15-year-old who arrived on our shores in 1960, alone, with only RM5 in his pocket.
Mohamed Shahabudin Abdul Salam,now 74, never intended to become a sculptor.
Shahabudin, who was born in Tanjore, India, but is now Malaysian, loved the arts: after completing his studies at the Singapore Institute of Commerce and later Goon Institute, he began performing in plays at the British Council and worked part-time as a dramatist for Radio Malaya in the early 1970s.
Ignited by his love for drama, he applied for a course in filmmaking at the London School of Arts in 1972 but the wait for a response took longer than expected, so he opened a small bookstore in Jalan Ampang in the meantime.
It was at his shop that Shahabudin noticed one of his regular customers, an Australian woman, carrying a copper tooling work under her arm as she browsed for books.
Curious, he approached her and asked about the item, and they began talking.
The next day, Shahabudin went out and bought a sheet of copper and some tools.
Without any prior training, he carved the shape of a horse from the copper.
“I sat back and looked at it and realised how much I had enjoyed doing it. It was a good effort.
“I had captured the horse rather well. I told myself, ‘This is nice. I should do more of this’,” he said at his home recently.
The dramatist-turned-sculptor began creating other works with copper, mostly small pieces depicting objects or landscapes, which he sold to friends.
It was not long before he yearned to work on larger projects.
Six months later, that opportunity came upon the occasion of the birthday of the then Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah Sultan Badlishah, the Sultan of Kedah.
Shahabudin wanted to present a portrait of the king in copper tooling as a gift on his official birthday on June 7, 1972.
“The portrait took 20 hours over the course of three days to complete. During the day I would work on it when there were no customers in my shop, and at night I would continue at my studio at home.
“The king had a busy schedule so I was only granted an audience in July but alhamdulillah, I was pleased with my work, and was very happy to present it to him at Istana Negara,” he said.
Over the course of the next 20 years, Shahabudin would go on to create numerous works of art, most of which can still be seen to this day.
They include a copper tooling abstract mural for the Kuala Lumpur Hilton Hotel (1972); the world’s longest metal-etched mural at the UMBC bank headquarters (1980); copper chandeliers at the lobby of the Genting Highlands Hotel (1989); two concrete-moulded fountains at Istana Alam Shah in Klang (1989); a monolith carved with the Proclamation of Independence (1993); a replica of a 7,000-year-old Egyptian sundial at the National Planetarium (1993) and a plaster-moulded mural for the Keningau Regional Library, Sabah (1993).
But it is the tribute to Tunku Abdul Rahman, carved out of a single block of solid granite, completed in 1994 for the opening of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Memorial, which he considers his most difficult work.
When he was commissioned for the project about a year earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri (now Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad had specifically asked that the carving be done in black granite.
Shahabudin travelled to India to source a suitable granite block, which he found in a village called Kolar near Madras (now Chennai). The block weighed nearly two tonnes.
“I worked with 24 skilled Indian craftsmen for at least 20 hours a day over six months to create the carving.
“For reference, I was given that famous black and white photograph of Tunku with his arm raised — the exact moment when Independence was declared.
“It was a challenging project because we were working on one single block.
“One mistake and we would have to search for another block of black granite,” he recalled.
When it was completed, the piece, measuring 3m high and 1.5m wide, was flown in to Malaysia and installed at the memorial.
After his work on Tunku, Shahabudin would go on to produce more creations, among them, an abstract sculpture of an eagle in stainless steel for Langkawi Airport (1995); the bronze lion guarding the entrance of HSBC Bank, Kuala Lumpur (1995); bronze sculptures of the Bull & Bear for Bursa Malaysia (1997); a marble sculpture with gold-gilded Kufi calligraphy for the Guthrie Group of Companies, Shah Alam (1997); a traditional sundial at the Pasir Salak Historical Complex (1997); a bronze kris sculpture at the Pasir Salak Historical Complex (2000); and a gold-gilded carving of the 99 names of Allah (2018).
His portfolio also includes works in Thailand and Singapore.
When asked about his future plans, Shahabudin said he wrote to Dr Mahathir recently to propose that the National Monument or Tugu Negara, be gilded in gold.
“The bronze of the sculpture has become dark and dull, so I advocated the idea that it was time to beautify the monument with 24-carat gold. God willing, this will be my next project.”
He is still waiting to hear from the prime minister.
Shahabudin, who is married with four children, doesn’t regret abandoning his dreams of becoming a film-maker, an option that could have been possible in his youth as he did secure a place at the London School of Arts.
“By the time I heard from them, I was earning good money from my copper tooling and sculpting work, so I decided not to turn my back on it.
“This change in my life path is a blessing. I had wanted to do drama but God pushed me in this direction, and I am thankful to Him for it.
“The reason I opened a bookstore was because the British Council had suggested that I get a job while waiting for confirmation, and it was through a customer that I discovered sculpting. This was always what I was meant to do,” he said.