Sham's Smiles

by CT Lim

I first encountered the cartoons of Shamsuddin H. Akib (1933 - 2024) in 1995 when I was researching on the history of political cartoons in The Straits Times. Better known as Sham, he contributed cartoons to The Straits Times in the late 1970s. By that time, political cartooning had more or less come to standstill in the newspapers. While political cartooning was vibrant in the postwar years during the twilight years of British colonial rule, once Singapore became independent in 1965, political cartoons would appear less and less in the newspapers as the mass media was conscripted into agenda of nation-building and building consensus among the public. Politics was a serious business and armchair critics and artists should not snipe from the sidelines. Basically the message was get into the ring of political polls or get out. There was no direct censorship of cartoons but one gets the message from what happen to the Singapore Herald and the cartoons of Morgan Chua in the early 1970s. After the closure of the Singapore Herald, Morgan sought his fortunes and trade as a political cartoonist elsewhere - in Hong Kong, to be specific. 

This was the climate which Sham sent in his first cartoon to The Straits Times in June 1978. It was a sports cartoon about the singing soccer stars in Singapore. It was lighthearted, easy humour and something the editors of The Straits Times and its readers could accept. Sham continued to contribute cartoons to The Straits Times in a regular slot called Sham’s Saturday Smile. Later, after gaining the trust of the editors, he would venture into current affairs (Sham’s World) and also covered the 1979 by-elections in Singapore in a column called Sham’s Election Smile. 

Keep in mind that Sham was not a full-time cartoonist. He worked as a graphic artist throughout his life till his retirement in 1997. He had aspirations to be a fine art artist although he was not art trained but self-taught. As documented by his daughter, Dahlia Shamsuddin, her father was one of the two winners of the Paya Lebar Airport mural competition in 1963. Sham’s winning entry was “Cultural Dances of Malaysia”. 

https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-17/issue-2/jul-sep-2021/murals/

I will let Dahlia provide her father’s bio:

My father is a self-taught artist. Born in Singapore in 1933, he started out as a peon (office boy) in the Commissioner-General Office but realised advancement prospects were limited and that he was capable of more. He briefly joined The Straits Times as an apprentice artist before moving to Papineau Advertising as they were looking for someone who could write Jawi in a calligraphic style.

My father eventually left Papineau and joined publisher Donald Moore before working for various international advertising agencies in Singapore. In the 1980s, he became a freelance graphic artist and continued doing commissions until his late 60s. In 2015, he was awarded the Singapore Design Golden Jubilee Award for Visual Communication.

I got to know Dahlia as we were both members of the Singapore Heritage Society. Later, Dahlia would become the president of the society. She was the one who told me that Sham was her dad back in the 2000s. 

In recent years, Sham’s achievements as an artist and cartoonist have been documented by Justin Zhuang. 

http://justinzhuang.com/posts/shams-saturday-smile-one-illustrators-spectator-sport/

He has also been interviewed by Ho Chi Tim for the National Archives of Singapore Oral History Department. I hope the recordings will be made available soon.

(L-R: Koh Hong Teng, Sham, CT, Dahlia on 9 June 2022)

In 2022, artist Koh Hong Teng and I started on our book on pioneer cartoonists in Singapore, Drawn to Satire. With the help of Dahlia, we interviewed Sham at his home on 9 June. He told us many stories and anecdotes about growing up in Singapore in the 1930s, reading The Saint novels and comic strips like Tarzan (Burne Hogarth) and Dick Tracy and comics like Captain Marvel. He was an avid soccer fan and would bring the young Dahlia to football matches in the 1970s. What came across strongly in our afternoon with him was his easy going nature. 

“Maybe that’s life. I drew cartoons for fun. Sometimes they made some people angry - like my old neighbours! 

But it’s all for fun. No need to be too serious. Take things easy. Take things as they come.”

Our book came out in late 2023. I am glad I was able to give a copy to Sham.

Time and tide waits for no man. Sham has been suffering from poor health in the last few months and he passed way on 7 April 2024, during Ramadan, a holy month for the Muslims. May he continue to smile and to smile at us from wherever he is.