Nine years since last execution but abolition still dragging — Elesh Vengadesan-Lee

MAY 24 — Today marks nine years since the last officially acknowledged execution in Malaysia.

On 24 May 2017, two men were hanged at Sungai Buloh Prison.

One of them, 48-year-old Yong Kar Mun, had been convicted of discharging a firearm during a robbery, while the other was convicted of murder.

His name was not released.

To me, a question that must be asked is why we still maintain the death penalty on the books when it is no longer being practised.

A moratorium was put in place in 2018 and the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 took effect in 2023, with several laws amended to remove the mandatory death penalty.

But even though we are no longer carrying out executions, people can still technically be handed the death penalty.

The author argues that Malaysia should question why it still keeps the death penalty in law when executions are no longer being carried out. — Unsplash pic

That’s why we were treated to the spectacle of Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal, who urged the government to consider the death penalty for drink drivers who cause fatal accidents.

He was, of course, engaged in political opportunism, knowing that such an issue might be racially polarising, which appears to be a common trend among PN’s elected representatives.

His argument that it would be a deterrent holds no water.

Scientific consensus and global studies indicate that the death penalty has no significant deterrent effect on crime compared to life imprisonment.

Take, for example, the failed war on drugs — a majority of the 900-plus people still on death row are there for drug-related crimes.

These are almost always drug mules and addicts, not the middlemen, and certainly not the kingpins.

We also have questions raised over compromised evidence-gathering, such as planted evidence and confessions extorted through violence.

Last year, civil society organisations engaged with Deputy Law Minister M. Kulasegaran to discuss the future of the death penalty in this country.

Is it too much to hope that one day soon, it shall be fully abolished?

* Elesh Vengadesan-Lee is a death penalty abolitionist.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

المصدر: Malay Mail