“There is no justice in killing in the name of justice” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Malaysia has recorded 27,191 casualties to the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic to date and while vaccination drives are ongoing, on a mission to save as many lives and not just to put an end to the spread of the virus but to hit the STOP button on lives claimed.
While all resources – of manpower, finance and political will channelled towards managing and defeating this unseen enemy, Malaysia must not forget its commitment to put an end to the Government being a state party to capital punishments. Of course, the suffering that a person or their families go through due to this unseen enemy is enormous and painful, but let us also not forget the pain that families whose loved ones are on death row and the pain borne by victims of violent crimes.
This year as we celebrate the World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10th with the theme of women sentenced to death, we are reminded of the women on death row all over the world and in Malaysia. According to the Cornell Centre on the Death Penalty Worldwide, there are at least 800 women on death row and a Parliamentary reply last year recorded 129 women on death row in Malaysian prisons. This translates to 16 percent of the global number of women on death row. Certainly not a figure Malaysians should be proud of.
Any crime committed must be dealt with with the long arm of the law. Ideally no one is and should be above the law but in Malaysia, many times the Government through the Public Prosecutor or the Attorney General have withdrawn appeals of high profile cases for reasons only known to them. When was the last time we heard a person who was holding a title such as Tan Sri, Datuk Seri, Datuk or other high profile persons who had committed a crime and also escaped the death penalty? Even the infamous Datuk Nicky, linked to the organised crime group called “Nicky Gang” were discharged, not amounting to an acquittal by the High Court. Would the man or woman on the street be as lucky as Nicky and his merry men? What we usually read of people who have committed horrific crimes and sentenced to death are factory workers, bus drivers, small time contractors, odd job workers and the jobless – which correlates to over 86% of people on death row in Malaysian prisons today.
Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 with a luggage given by someone which was laced with drugs, unknown to her while she departed Malaysia. She was sentenced to death and was amongst those to be executed through the firing squad in 2015. She escaped the Bali Nine executions as the person who gave her a bag was a relative who was also in Malaysia at that time. She maintains her innocence to this day.
Of the 144 countries that have abolished the death penalty in practice and law, Malaysia remains one of the few countries amongst the 51 that still believes that executing people will cause crime rates to reduce, to act as a deterrent or worse, for justice to be served. And this is further that the reality on the ground.
Over the years the numbers of men and women on death row in Malaysia have increased and shows no signs of a reduction and crime rates still remain at a high.
This is an indicator that the Government must devote to finding out why our death row prisons are filling up, year after year. It CANNOT take the easy way out and continue to charge people with capital punishment.
The death penalty was an act, a law that the British left behind when the occupation ended so it has been around for decades. The United Kingdom has then moved to abolish the death penalty but Malaysia still holds on to it. Imagine for a moment a Malaysia without the death penalty.
No, rapists and murderers will not be walking free amongst us, they would be in prison.
No, terrorists will not be walking amongst us, they would be in prison too.
No, drug traffickers will not be walking amongst us too, they’d be in prison.
The Government cannot be hiding behind the veil of popularity and fame by keeping the death penalty. It must invest tirelessly into reforms – the criminal justice system, social development, plug porous borders, punish corrupt officials, the menace of drug abuse and the mental state of health of her people.
The death penalty has always been a subject that Governments never want to get their hands dirty with. No country, Parliament nor Government has ever received overwhelming support to abolish capital punishment – but it is the right thing to do. The European Union (with the exception of Belarus) have all abolished the death penalty. It remains committed to maintaining its stand on saying NO to capital punishments despite ongoing pressures by right wing, conservative politicians who are capitalising on this emotional subject.
The late VK Liew, Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs under Pakatan Harapan was the person who signed the document that still stands today, which is a moratorium on executions. There are 33 offences that warrants the death penalty in Malaysia – 11 mandatory and 22 discretionary. Although he worked hard engage with civil society, former judges, the police force and even with religious leaders, his work to abolish the mandatory death penalty came to a halt when the Government changed and it has been silent till now.
The drug trade which often is a precursor to other crimes committed is an issue that Malaysia and other countries in the ASEAN region have been grappling with for decades. And it is a lucrative trade, paired with trafficking women and children and the illicit sales of light arms and small weapons.
A seat at the United Nations Human Rights Council must be met with sincere efforts and resolutions back home to ensure that human rights, including the right to life, is preserved and the rule of law is upheld and defended without fear, favour or prejudice.