JB’s ‘woman, mugger (and police)’ mural removed

The much-debated mural was whitewashed by JB City Council officials in five minutes.

PETALING JAYA: In a move which is certain to attract further brickbats, the Johor Baru City Council today removed the controversial “Lego woman and mugger” mural this afternoon.

Officials from the Johor Baru City Council arrived at Taman Molek at about 3.45pm and only took five minutes to whitewash the controversial mural, Chinese daily Oriental Daily reported.

This latest development came just when everyone thought the issue had been settled with a tampering job done overnight by unknown individuals to draw a policeman to the original job.

The mural, which depicted a Lego man in ski-mask lurking to rob a Lego woman from around the corner, was done by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic last week.

Since then it became a trending photo spot and hogged the media limelight in the past few days due to the criticism by Johor authorities against its message.

Johor Baru mayor Ismail Karim had previously threatened to erase the mural, but Johor executive councillor Tee Siew Kiong yesterday said it could be retained on the condition that a Lego policeman was added into the mural.

Four unidentified youths had then painted a policeman holding a handcuff right behind the Lego mugger last night, but it appeared to be insufficient to save the mural.

Meanwhile, Johor Jaya assemblywoman Liow Cai Tung failed in tabling an emergency motion in the Johor legislature assembly to discuss the mural this afternoon.

“Johor exco supposed to response to my motion tomorrow, but MBJB officials were deployed to remove the mural this afternoon.

“I deplore such self-deceiving attempt. You can cover the mural, but you can’t cover the fact that there is rising crime rate in JB,” she said.

Earlier today, responding to the uninvited new addition to his artwork on Facebook, Zacharevic said:“Now that’s a true vandalism! Malaysia never fails to amuse me!”

Many who left replies apologised on behalf of Malaysians to Zacharevic for “spoiling his art” while some appealed for his understanding that they were just trying to save his work.

DAP leader and Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang meanwhile said the authorities had shown a total wrong sense of priorities by expanding energy on how to remove the “sting” of Zacharevic’s mural.

“What is most important of all is for the authorities to take meaningful and effective action to ensure that JB becomes a low-crime city which is safe and secure for residents, visitors and investors.

“The relevant authorities in JB – the JB City Council, the Johore police and the Johore state government – must not “do nothing” but must use the controversy over the mural to launch a new initiative to wipe out JB’s reputation as the nation’s crime capital,” he said in a statement.