KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — The Tun Razak design, namely the five stripes on a ‘samping’ (a shorter sarong usually worn with Malay attire), made of the Royal Pahang Weaving fabric which had been worn by the second prime minister when he was the Pahang Mentri Besar, 61 years ago, is ‘reproduced’ at the 2016 Umno General Assembly.  

Universiti Teknologi MARA’s Creative Media and Technology Hub director Assoc Prof Sulaiman Abd Ghani said the design on the samping which was hand-woven by Tun Abdul Razak Hussein’s grandmother Selema Sulaiman was reproduced in collaboration with the Penor Prison in Kuantan, Pahang, to become a graphic image during this year’s assembly. 

"The completed samping will be photographed to become graphic images on posters, banners and stage background. The use of the Tun Razak design is appropriate as he was an Umno fighter, where his legacy is being continued by his son (Datuk Seri Najib),” he told Bernama here today. 

Sulaiman said the samping, which took nearly four months to complete had also been presented to Najib yesterday as a gift. 

Najib was excited to receive the samping, which was made by him, together with 20 other individuals including inmates from the Penor Prison as the Pahang Royal Weaving Centre, Sulaiman said. 

"Alhamdulillah (praise be to Allah). Beautiful! I like it. That was the reaction of the Prime Minister upon receiving the samping. He was really happy,” he said. 

According to Sulaiman, the samping certainly had a sentimental value to Najib because besides the fact that it belonged to his father, the original piece was being well preserved at the Pekan Museum since 1976.  

In conjunction with this year’s general assembly, Sulaiman said he combined the Tun Razak design with a sarong which had the ‘teluk berangkai’ and ‘pucuk rebung berjuang’ as a symbol to the Wanita Umno movement’s struggles. 

"The teluk berangkai design describes the race unification, while the ‘pucuk rebung berjuang’ symbolises the Umno’s struggles in championing the cause of the Malays,” said. 

Sulaiman said efforts to create a new design for next year’s Umno general assembly would be more challenging as a high standard had been applied to reproduce the Tun Abdul Razak design. — Bernama