Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor, Malaysia, recently purchased a painting with the Malaysian Parliament in the background and a room full of apes and frogs in the parliament. This painting quickly resonated with a large number of netizens.
On April 12, local time, the Royal Office of Selangor posted the painting on its Instagram account, which has received 46,000 likes so far.
According to Malaysia's Star and Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao, the color painting is set in the Malaysian Parliament Hall, along with three speakers and two parliamentary staff, who resemble Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun, speaker of the lower house of parliament of Malaysia, but sits in the parliamentarian seats a group of primates such as gorillas, orangutans, baboons and monkeys, as well as several frogs. The apes in the painting have rich facial expressions, some are laughing, and some are strange. According to reports, the ape satirizes some parliamentarians and crowns the monkey, and the frog may be a member of parliament who hints at job hopping.
According to the royal office of Selangor, Sultan Sharafeddin is ready to hang the painting in his private study and hopes to auction the painting for charity.
The painting resonated with Malaysian netizens. One netizen commented on Instagram that it was "a work that shows the real picture of Malaysian politics".
Another netizen also wrote: "Long live my king, it seems that my king knows the hearts of the people very well." ”
Malaysian comedian Harith Iskander wrote a short comment under a post from the Royal Office in Selangor: "Wonderful! Long live my king. He also tweeted that he was willing to bid for the painting.
Indie rock musician Herri Hamid commented on Facebook: "If we could hang this painting in every government agency... To reflect the real situation, that would be great. ”
Charles Santiago, a member of the lower house of Malaysia's Parliament elected in The Klang constituency in Selangor, said on his Facebook page that such a "poignant work of art" could allow people to "recognize the current situation" and "increase political participation".
However, as of the time of publication, the author of the painting is still unknown.
In 2009, British graffiti artist Banksy also created a painting called "The Council of Decentralization", which depicts the ape occupying the lower house of the LinkedIn parliament.
