From the Star Online:
By RASHVINJEET S.BEDI
rashvin@thestar.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: It is time for Malaysia to abolish the death penalty, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz.
“If it is wrong to take someone’s life, then the Government should not do it either. It’s ironic and not correct,” he told Sunday Star.
The de-facto law minister believed there was always the possibility that the accused person was not guilty.
“No criminal justice system is perfect. You take a man’s life and years later, you find out that another person did the crime. What can you do?”
In Malaysia, the death sentence is mandatory for murder and drug trafficking among other crimes. Recently, there have even been calls to classify fatal baby dumping cases as murder.
Nazri pointed out that worldwide, the trend was to abolish the death penalty.
However, he believed a change in the people’s mindset was needed before the law could be amended.
“It has been discussed informally (in the Government) but we don’t have the political will to do it at the moment,” he admitted, adding that the death penalty did not seem to be a deterrent to drug trafficking and murder.
Former High Court and Court of Appeal judge Datuk K.C. Vohrah is also in favour of abolishing the death penalty.
“The law is the law but I wish Parliament would abolish the death sentence because if a mistake is made, it would be irreversible. There are other ways of dealing with heinous crimes,” he said.
Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam said the commission was against capital punishment and had recommended its removal to the Government.
The Bar Council is also all for doing away with the death sentence.
“It is a form of punishment to exact vengeance but society has to learn to be more compassionate,” said council vice-president Lim Chee Wee, adding that resolutions to abolish capital punishment were made during the council’s AGM in 2006 and 2007.
Seems like Ministers across the Causeway are more progressive, compassionate, far-sighted and less resistant to change than their counterparts in Singapore. Singapore often boasts about being superlative in everything, but somehow, in the area, of rule of law, we are way, way behind the advanciong world, often defending out-of-date, dogmatic ones like the death penalty and ISA.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2010%2F8%2F29%2Fnation%2F6894703&sec=nation
This article has a better discussion on death penalty involving former judges and bar members…
I like how the judges talked about having to sentencing the accused to death penalty…
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“It was so terrible that I never wanted to do those sorts of cases again. Before I went up to the bench to deliver the decision, I would pray to God that I did the right thing. I would ask for blessings for the accused if he were convicted. It was a terrible burden,”
“With a stroke of a pen, we are taking a person’s life. I didn’t like it at all but the law is there and there is nothing that you can do about it,” he says.
“On reflection, it is better not to have it.”
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Having mandatory death penalty is like asking the judges do the dirty job (i.e. being THE murderer), without letting the judge to weigh in his/her own judicial conscience…
ask them to abolish their DP first la… hypocrites
@ Datuk Sri Singapore
Did you read the article?
I am impressed and if they implement it before we do, it will history in the making. Like it or not, it will happen as humans evolved.
The first step is always the most challenging step to be taken.
It takes confidence and faith in one’s own moral compass to set a new path.
Can we depend on a weak PM to set his own agenda and prove that he is able to fulfill his claim as being his own Man ?
on October 23, 2007, He said ” We will stay one step behind the frontline of change… Watch how things work out elsewhere, before making any irrevocable moves”
Call me old fashion….i believe in the death penalty but i do have a quote on how it is impose. like the recent case of the 19 yr old malayisan….. yes indeed for his crime i would say hang the bugger….singapore cannot become a drug trafficker hub only with tough laws drug trafficker don dare to mess with us …but on the other hand, the kid is only 19…….dont he deserve a second chance…i feel that death penalty on shd be impose based on the individual cases and only when as a last resort….there should not be a filter that say u are sentence to death because u have done this…..
To : DIOS
1) U claim that u are ” Believe in the death penalty” . how u describe the term ” believe” ? as in ” Mandatory” or “Selective” of Death penalty ? will u tell people that ” … I believe God Love U but i do have a quote on how it is impose …. “
Recently certain states in the US that do not have DP are having issues with their aging prisoners. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jfMdUTy6QKpqq2a7mrZIYrHSw1kQD9HKF0G81
The problem with abolishing DP and instead going for Life sentences is that the state (which means our $) will go to long term care of them. The main issue arises in medical costs.Older prisoners with higher medical fees, up to $72,000 USD a year. This will become the issue in the future, if DP is really taken out and all heinous criminals are place in state care. What would people say then, that low income people with cancer cannot afford treatment yet criminals are able to get them. It is not just about being humane, there are also other issues that needs to be considered.
@Problems with abolishing DP
Completely agreed.
These people keep talking about abolishing DP to make themselves feel good, but they end up sabotaging the whole society who will have to foot the bill for their personal pets.
I’ll say this loud and clear: As a taxpayer, I OBJECT to my tax dollars being used to feed murderers and drug mules. Even though I’m anti-PAP, I will vote against any party, PAP or Opp, that supports abolition.
There may be a brutalising effect upon society by carrying out executions – this was apparent in this country during the 17th and 18th centuries when people turned out to enjoy the spectacle of public hanging. They still do today in those countries where executions are carried out in public. It is hard to prove this one way or the other – people stop and look at car crashes but it doesn’t make them go and have an accident to see what it is like. It would seem that there is a natural voyeurism in most people.
Small matter. I can support them. Just let them live.
In Singapore , Life imprisonment mean a minimun period of 20 years. After that whether the prisoner is eligible for parole or not depends on the President. If the inmate is still deem a threat and risk to society, he can be imprison till they day he die.
For further reading pls refer to :
Freedom’s Price : Its Fact and Not Fiction by Phil Ho
The book is also available at NLB under Singapore collection
Death penalty should not be mandatory. There are people whom capable of committing truly serious and heinous crimes and have no regards for another’s right to live. Such individuals should not be spared as it would be a disservice to the victim, victim’s family and society at large. However, by instituting death as a mandatory punishment, it closes any option for the presiding judge to show leniency should that be deemed more favourable. And even when a choice between death or life imprisonment is made available that the judge chooses death, such sentence should only be meted out when there is absolutely no reasonable doubt as to the crime committed.
I think it is better not to hang the guilty person than to hang the innocent person. For the innocent person, once hanged is not reversible and no amount of money or compensation will bring him back.