Shahrum bin Yub

Biography

In 1966 Shahrum bin Yub, then a student at the University of Leeds, was invited to join the National Museum of Malaysia by Tan Sri Mubin Sheppard. The assignment was a narrow one: as a curator, he was to collect objects for the gallery of the orang asli, the indigenous people of the peninsula.

He was born on 21 April 1934 in Tanjung Malim, in the state of Perak. His father, Yub bin Rawan, taught the violin; his mother, known as Chek, was a performer of mak yong, a traditional Malay dance theatre. He passed his School Certificate with a Grade One at the Anderson School in Ipoh, after which a Perak State Scholarship took him to England. At the University of Leeds he studied anthropology. He also trained in museum work separately: Shahrum became the first Malaysian to receive a Diploma in Museology from the British Museum. That combination, anthropology plus museum training, shaped his first years at the National Museum, where he worked at first on the collections. After that his career moved quickly. In 1972, six years after joining the museum, he became the first Malaysian appointed Director-General of Museums. He held the post until he retired in 1991. About the particular exhibitions and reforms of those years I cannot judge: I have no documents to hand, and only the post and the honours remain. After leaving the service, he continued to take part in the launch of popular exhibitions on a wide range of subjects.

The honours came in different years. In 1978 he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, in 1981 the title Dato’ Paduka Cura Simanja (DPCM), and in 1989 the Tun Abdul Razak Foundation Award.

Shahrum’s visibility reached beyond the museum community: he appeared regularly in the cartoons of Lat, a well-known Malaysian cartoonist. He was recognised by his bow tie, his suits and a curl of hair over his forehead.

He died on 16 December 2016 at home, in Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar, at the age of 82. He was buried at the Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur.