{"id":5403,"date":"2013-11-16T09:09:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-16T01:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/?p=5403"},"modified":"2014-07-03T00:51:31","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T16:51:31","slug":"know-lego-police-johor-scared-check-now-smile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/know-lego-police-johor-scared-check-now-smile\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you know what’s the Lego Police in Johor scared of? Check it now! (and smile)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saw this funny picture from today’s Sin Chew Jit Poh Newspaper, enjoy & share it out with your friends.<\/p>\n

\"Johor-Lego-Police\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read the following news for latest development over Ernest Zacharevic’s Lego Mural:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Malaysian authorities paint over Ernest Zacharevic’s Lego mural over fears it will hurt tourism<\/h3>\n

A STREET mural depicting a mugging involving two Lego figures has been white-washed on the orders of angry authorities in a Malaysian border city known for its crime rate and a Legoland theme park.<\/p>\n

Officials in Johor Baru, which borders on Singapore, ordered the mural by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic be painted over because it harmed the city’s reputation.<\/p>\n

The mural showed a woman drawn in the style of a Lego toy and carrying a Chanel bag walking toward a corner around which a black-clad and knife-wielding Lego robber waits to pounce.<\/p>\n

Aziz Ithnin, an official with the Johor Baru City Council, said the mural was done without permission and amounted to illegal graffiti.<\/p>\n

“It’s vandalism. The robber gives an image that is not good for our country, investment and tourism,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If the painting stays, everybody will be scared.”<\/p>\n

Before the mural was white-washed, a Lego police officer waiting to arrest the crook had been painted on the wall by other artists.<\/p>\n

Johor Baru has long struggled against a reputation as a seedy and crime-ridden counterpoint to adjacent Singapore, an ultra-modern city-state with one of the lowest crime rates in the world.<\/p>\n

The crime issue is particularly sensitive now that Malaysian authorities have earmarked the city and a huge surrounding area for a massive development zone called Iskandar.<\/p>\n

The plan has already lured billions of dollars in property and other investment commitments, including the Legoland Malaysia resort and theme park which opened last year.<\/p>\n

The park is the sixth worldwide opened by the Denmark-based makers of the popular children’s building-block toys.<\/p>\n

Zacharevic has become known for his street art in Malaysia, and also has done works in Singapore, Japan and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear when the mural was painted, Zacharevic could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

But he posted on his Facebook page above a photo of the Lego mural showing the later-added policeman.<\/p>\n

“Now that’s a true vandalism! Malaysia never fails to amuse me,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

Malaysians have expressed increasing concern over a perceived rise in crime, an issue that exploded this year with an outbreak of gun violence that police have blamed on warring gangs.<\/p>\n

However, the federal government, which set ambitious crime-reduction targets in recent years, has released figures showing a dramatic decrease in crime, drawing accusations that it was covering up the problem by tweaking with data.<\/p>\n

Senior opposition politician Lim Kit Siang said Johor authorities should focus on crime, not murals.<\/p>\n

“The authorities show a completely wrong sense of priorities,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Source: news.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

<\/h2>\n

Is it so ‘art’ to love murals?<\/h2>\n

(By Dorairaj Nadason, The Star\u2019s Executive Editor.)<\/p>\n

\"DorairajWhat do Justin Bieber, the Middle East and Malaysia have in common? Well, they have all been caught in street art controversies, for one thing.<\/b><\/p>\n

OH, dear! I had thought the cop had settled matters in Johor.<\/p>\n

No, I am not talking about the guys who took down the killer security guard in an early morning raid in Kota Tinggi.<\/p>\n

I am talking about the Lego-cop on a wall who I believed had finally brought to an end a debate that went international.<\/p>\n

And about Lithuanian Ernest Zacharevic\u2019s mural that showed a woman walking towards an armed snatch thief hiding around the corner.<\/p>\n

I think it was clever. In fact, it reminded me of Sergio Aragones, that \u201cmarginal\u201d artist who kept us all on edge with his brilliant work in\u00a0Mad<\/i>\u00a0magazine.<\/p>\n

But Malaysia\u2019s legendary we-must-not-laugh-at-ourselves authorities were enraged.<\/p>\n

The mural is insulting to Johor, they screamed.<\/p>\n

So, some guys drew in a policeman, with handcuffs at the ready, next to the snatch thief.<\/p>\n

And all was well.<\/p>\n

Or so I thought, but it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Despite their effort to remodel the drawing and show our policemen in a good light, the overzealous Johor city fathers decided to paint over Zacharevic\u2019s work and the new Lego cop as well.<\/p>\n

Too bad for them, the situation has now become sticky.<\/p>\n

People are making stickers of the woman with the Chanel bag and the snatch thief and sticking them at all sorts of corners in Johor.<\/p>\n

Zacharevic must be laughing his head off.<\/p>\n

The artist had tried to head off the controversy by remodelling his work, at least on Facebook.<\/p>\n

He transformed the snatch thief into a flower-wielding besotted lover in one posting.<\/p>\n

We in\u00a0The Star\u00a0<\/i>were left wondering what else could be done.<\/p>\n

So, we passed the buck to readers.<\/p>\n

And they came up with Bruce Lee, Batman, Santa Claus, and even a broom in the girl\u2019s hand to shoo the snatch thief way. It was all quite funny.<\/p>\n

Which is why I really cannot understand all the fuss.<\/p>\n

I mean, it\u2019s a mural.<\/p>\n

And snatch thefts happen. Not only in Johor but around the country.<\/p>\n

Just check your Facebook account. If you don\u2019t have at least a couple of shares about snatch thefts and robberies in Malaysia, I\u2019d advise you to get some real friends on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Johor should, in fact, consider it an honour to have Zacharevic come over and draw his murals there.<\/p>\n

Look at his work in Penang. Thousands flock to see his art.<\/p>\n

The still 20-something artist has been rated as one of the best street artists in the world.<\/p>\n

I have to agree. I have seen his work in Penang.<\/p>\n

The mural of children on a bicycle was named by England\u2019s\u00a0Guardian<\/i>\u00a0newspaper as one of the best in the world.<\/p>\n

Then, there are the kids on a swing, two others on a motorcycle, the girl in blue balancing herself over two windows and the old lady and her grandchild at one of the Weld Quay jetties.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the relaxing trishaman hovering over the Penang Road car park which was once my favourite haunt.<\/p>\n

They all strike awe in you.<\/p>\n

Street art can indeed be beautiful.<\/p>\n

In Penang, there are also the street metal sculptures by local artists.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0tok tok mee<\/i>\u00a0man (what a quaint name, that), the\u00a0Goh Ka Kee<\/i>\u00a0(five-foot way) fellow and the\u00a0nasi kandar<\/i>\u00a0chap \u2013 they are all amusing and enlightening.<\/p>\n

Then, there is the guy climbing the tree only to find out it\u2019s not the toddy palm that he wanted but a\u00a0pinang<\/i>\u00a0(betel nut) tree.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s right next to the Market Lane toddy shop, another old haunt of ours \u2013 not the toddy shop, but Kassim\u2019s stall opposite it where, as rookie reporters and sub-editors, many of us would have\u00a0nasi lemak<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0teh tarik<\/i>\u00a0late in the night.<\/p>\n

Just days ago, Penang even came up with its great wall of murals. That will be another tourist draw, for sure.<\/p>\n

Even squeaky-clean Singapore has commissioned Zacharevic to do a few murals in the city-state.<\/p>\n

Singapore, obviously, has learnt from Penang.<\/p>\n

Street art is even becoming a way of making political statements, with many cities in the Middle East, from Syria to Egypt, all covered with graffiti by youth with statements to make.<\/p>\n

Even celebrity VIPs are getting into it.<\/p>\n

Justin Bieber was in Colombia recently.<\/p>\n

And the cops there stopped traffic and cordoned off a lane to allow the young artiste to turn street artist.<\/p>\n

That opened the doors for hundreds of other graffiti artists in Bogota.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Bieber\u2019s new-found hobby. The young lad has a lot to learn, though.<\/p>\n

He drew what was obviously racist graffiti outside a Brazil hotel and may now face charges.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t agree with racist and abusive graffiti.<\/p>\n

But if someone wants to draw a mural about what is really going on in our midst, why not?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite silly, really, to have the truth whitewashed.<\/p>\n

> The writer, who can be reached at raj@thestar.com.my is off to Penang to take in the great wall of Penang, another of those dour places that has been brought to vibrant life, thanks to street art.<\/i><\/p>\n

Source: thestar online<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saw this funny picture from today’s Sin Chew Jit Poh Newspaper, enjoy & share it out with your friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[171],"class_list":["post-5403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-malaysia-news","tag-malaysia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbc.com.my\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}