Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) will begin preliminary conservation work on the Tugu Negara next week after receiving a US$250,000 (RM1.1 million) grant from the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP).
UMK Vice-Chancellor Prof Arham Abdullah said the first step would be a dilapidation survey to assess the condition and structural integrity of the 60-year-old monument.
“We will then plan based on the findings of the survey and hope to complete the entire project before Aug 31 next year,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya yesterday.
The 12-month project is targeted for completion before Aug 31, 2027, in conjunction with Malaysia’s 70th independence anniversary.
UMK will serve as the academic lead for the conservation project, which is also being carried out in conjunction with Freedom 250, marking the 250th anniversary of US independence.
Planned works include stabilising the monument’s sculptures, repairing structural joints and applying protective patination treatment to its surface.
Addressing decades of damage
The project will also address damage caused by six decades of exposure to tropical weather, as well as the effects of a bombing at the monument in 1975.
According to the police, the monument was damaged in a communist attack in the early hours of Aug 26, 1975.
Arham said UMK would focus on research, documentation and knowledge transfer related to conservation and restoration techniques.
Conservation specialists from the US National Park Service will work with UMK conservators and the National Heritage Department, while more than 50 Malaysian conservation students and heritage professionals are expected to receive training.
Arham said the project continued UMK’s cooperation with the US Embassy, which began in 2018 and covers education, culture, research and knowledge exchange.
UMK had previously received RM200,000 under the AFCP in 2022 for research on the preservation and documentation of local heritage in Kelantan.
The idea for the monument was conceived after Malaysia’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman saw the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, during an official visit to Washington in 1960.
He later commissioned Australian-born American sculptor Felix de Weldon to design the monument, which was completed in 1966 to commemorate security personnel killed during the Second World War and the Malayan Emergency.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Cate Dillon said the project would bring US conservation expertise to Malaysia that could also be applied to other monuments in future.
She said local personnel, including those in the architecture and construction sectors, would also be involved and would learn from the US National Park Service. - Mkini
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