National Monument

As a visitor, when you travel beside the Jalan Parliament towards the Lake Gardens, you will come across the National Monument or Tugu Negara. This is a great bronze that was erected to commemorate the soldiers who sacrificed their lives during the WWII and the Communist Emergency period from 1948 to 1960. The Monument was designed by the famous sculptor Felix de Weldon, who also designed the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington.

Measuring 15.54 meters high, this bronze monument depicts seven soldiers who epitomize the seven qualities of leadership. The seven men from the Malaysian Armed Forces holding the Malaysian national flag stand for leadership, unity, strength, vigilance, suffering, courage and sacrifice. The National Monument is one of the largest and freestanding sculptures in the world. This ‘last post’ is sounded every Saturday between 6 and 6.10 pm, except on public holidays.

Constructed in 1966, the monument is 15 meters high with the basement bearing inscriptions in English in the Roman script and Malay in the Jawi script. Located just beside the National Monument are the ASEAN Gardens and the Memorial Tun Razak, which is the storehouse of memorabilia of the second Malaysian Prime Minister, the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.